Colorado Avalanche

Who: Flyers (12-7-1) at Colorado Avalanche (13-7-3) When: 9 o'clock Where: Pepsi Arena, Denver TV: Comcast SportsNet Radio: WIP (610-AM)

Ed Barkowitz EASTERN CONFERENCE: EASTERN CONFERENCE: Montreal Canadiens vs. Flyers - Flyers in 7. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. New York Rangers - Penguins in 6. WESTERN CONFERENCE: Colorado Avalanche vs. Detroit Red Wings - Red Wings in 7. Dallas Stars vs. San Jose Sharks - Sharks in 5.   Sam Donnellon EASTERN CONFERENCE: EASTERN CONFERENCE: Montreal Canadiens vs. Flyers - Flyers in 7. ...

Both the Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Rockies postponed games last night as the Denver area mourned the victims of Tuesday's shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. The Avalanche was to open the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs against San Jose with games last night and tonight. Instead, Games 1 and 2 were moved to San Jose Saturday and Monday, with Games 3 and 4 in Denver next week. "There's nothing more important than respect to our community," Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix said.

Jamie McGinn forced overtime by scoring with 2 seconds left in regulation, and Peter Mueller netted the lone shootout goal in the Colorado Avalanche's 5-4 win over the host Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. McGinn scored twice, Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and assist, and David Jones scored for the Avalanche, who vaulted out of a four-way tie for eighth place in the Western Conference to sixth. Rookie Marcus Foligno scored twice for Buffalo, which inched within three points of eighth-place Washington in the East.

MICHAL NEUVIRTH made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and Alex Ovechkin scored his 19th goal on a power play midway through the second period to lift the visiting Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Canadiens last night. Mathieu Perreault and Marcus Johansson scored first-period goals for Washington, which bounced back from a 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday to win for the third time in four games. Price stopped 13 shots for Montreal, 4-10-1 in its past 15 games - the last 14 under interim coach Randy Cunneyworth.

Peter Forsberg agreed to a $9.5 million, one-year contract extension with Colorado, but the club will have the final say on whether the injured center plays for the Avalanche next season. Forsberg, who would have earned $11 million including incentives this season in the last year of a three-year contract, has been sidelined since last year's playoffs by a series of injuries. His hopes of returning to the team this month were dashed when an injury to the tendons in his left foot was discovered.

Goaltender Patrick Roy remained on fire, as did the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche ran its unbeaten home streak to seven (5-0-2) with a 6-0 victory over the visiting Phoenix Coyotes last night. Roy stopped 20 shots and extended his unbeaten streak to 11 games (9-0-2) with his 34th career shutout. The Avalanche improved its record to an NHL-best 14-5-4. "This was really a team shutout," Roy said. "The guys were sharp tonight and we did good things defensively. " Roy moved into a 23rd-place tie on the all-time career shutout list with Bill Durnam.

Even though the Colorado Avalanche matched a season high with six goals, the postgame talk centered around defense and goaltending. Joe Sakic had two goals and two assists and Jocelyn Thibault stopped 21 shots as the visiting Avalanche won their fifth straight, 6-1, over the Dallas Stars. "We've been playing well on defense, but this was our best defensive game all year," said Thibault, who came within 11 seconds of registering his second career shutout before Brent Gilchrist scored his second goal of the season.

Finally, the Florida Panthers found a way to beat the Colorado Avalanche. Tom Fitzgerald scored shorthanded in the third period and John Vanbiesbrouck stopped 25 shots as the visiting Panthers defeated the Avalanche, 2-1, last night in the first meeting of the teams since the Stanley Cup finals last June. It was a different story this time for the Panthers, who were swept in four straight by Colorado in last season's finals. "Forget the notion that this makes up for us not winning the Stanley Cup," Florida coach Doug MacLean said.

On one end of the ice, Patrick Roy is making critical saves. On the other end, Roman Turek is simply becoming a critic. Roy stopped 28 shots, and the Colorado Avalanche got three goals from unlikely offensive sources as they took control of the Western Conference finals with a 4-2 victory over the visiting St. Louis Blues last night. The Avalanche leads the best-of-seven series, 2-0. Game 3 is tomorrow at night at St. Louis. "They scored three goals but they were pretty lucky goals," said Turek, who faced only 15 shots.

Jamie McGinn forced overtime by scoring with 2 seconds left in regulation, and Peter Mueller netted the lone shootout goal in the Colorado Avalanche's 5-4 win over the host Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. McGinn scored twice, Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and assist, and David Jones scored for the Avalanche, who vaulted out of a four-way tie for eighth place in the Western Conference to sixth. Rookie Marcus Foligno scored twice for Buffalo, which inched within three points of eighth-place Washington in the East.

MICHAL NEUVIRTH made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and Alex Ovechkin scored his 19th goal on a power play midway through the second period to lift the visiting Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Canadiens last night. Mathieu Perreault and Marcus Johansson scored first-period goals for Washington, which bounced back from a 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday to win for the third time in four games. Price stopped 13 shots for Montreal, 4-10-1 in its past 15 games - the last 14 under interim coach Randy Cunneyworth.

DAVID JONES scored 1:11 into overtime to give the visiting Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 victory over Toronto last night. Jones buried the rebound of Kyle Quincey's shot past goalie James Reimer. Daniel Winnik and Milan Hejduk also scored for Colorado (5-1). Phil Kessel and Nikolai Kulemin had goals for the Maple Leafs (3-0-1). The Avalanche went 5-0 on their longest road trip of the season. It was Colorado's first perfect mark in a trip that long. Jean-Sebastien Giguere started in goal for Colorado against his former team.

Who: Flyers (12-7-1) at Colorado Avalanche (13-7-3) When: 9 o'clock Where: Pepsi Arena, Denver TV: Comcast SportsNet Radio: WIP (610-AM)

Henrik Zetterberg had a goal and two assists and Ty Conklin made 24 saves in his 11th straight home victory in the Detroit Red Wings' 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks last night. Pavel Datsyuk added a goal and an assist, and Dan Cleary, Johan Franzen and Kris Draper also scored for the Stanley Cup champions. Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan scored for Anaheim, which lost its third straight; Teemu Selanne had two assists. Datsyuk's power-play goal with 33 seconds left in the opening period broke a 1-1 tie. His 25th goal came from the lip of the crease as he converted Zetterberg's pass from behind the net. Zetterberg's power-play goal midway through the second period made it 3-1, and Franzen scored his 25th goal early in the third period.

Ed Barkowitz EASTERN CONFERENCE: EASTERN CONFERENCE: Montreal Canadiens vs. Flyers - Flyers in 7. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. New York Rangers - Penguins in 6. WESTERN CONFERENCE: Colorado Avalanche vs. Detroit Red Wings - Red Wings in 7. Dallas Stars vs. San Jose Sharks - Sharks in 5.   Sam Donnellon EASTERN CONFERENCE: EASTERN CONFERENCE: Montreal Canadiens vs. Flyers - Flyers in 7. ...

Winning streaks aren't difficult to piece together. Take a look up the New Jersey Turnpike, where the Devils have won nine straight games. As good as the Flyers have been - in stretches - this season, they have labored since late October to win games in succession. Last night at the Pepsi Center, they ended their two-game trip with a 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. They had beaten Minnesota on Wednesday. John Stevens' team has not won consecutive games since beating Pittsburgh and the New York Islanders on Nov. 10 and 12. Though they didn't win, there wasn't a dropoff from the previous game - a problem that has plagued the team.

Ryan Smyth scored twice and then had the decisive goal in the shootout as the Colorado Avalanche rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat the visiting Calgary Flames, 5-4, last night. Jarome Iginla, who had two goals and an assist for the Flames, had Calgary's only goal in the shootout. Colorado scored four consective goals in the second period, all of which banked off of Calgary players. Smyth, who tied a franchise record with 11 shots on goal, scored the first two goals.

Paul Stastny put together an impressive rookie season, and now he is already working on an even better sophomore campaign. Stastny had a goal and four assists, and Milan Hejduk scored twice as the Colorado Avalanche broke open a tight game with four third-period goals and beat the visiting San Jose Sharks, 6-2, last night. Avalanche captain Joe Sakic had a goal and an assist to move past Phil Esposito into eighth place on the NHL career points list with 1,591. Stastny, the runnerup to Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin for rookie of the year honors last season, has four goals and four assists in Colorado's first three games.

You don't spend nine years at the foot of the Rocky Mountains playing for the Colorado Avalanche and not look fondly back after moving east to Philadelphia. That is what Peter Forsberg is experiencing. Well, sort of. After all, it was his decision to sign with the Flyers in August, when the Avalanche experienced salary-cap problems. "I think everybody knows the situation that was created with the new salary cap and all," Forsberg said. "And I kind of wanted a new challenge.