Denver

Peter Forsberg didn't come back just to sit out a series against the Red Wings. Still, the Colorado Avalanche forward is taking the cautious route as he recovers from a groin injury. When asked if he'd play in Game 3 tonight at home, Forsberg answered, "We'll see. " He's frustrated by the fact he had to watch both of Colorado's losses in Detroit. Forsberg then felt the need to defend his decision to sit out. "I try to go out and do my best every single game, and if I can't play it's unfortunate," said Forsberg, who signed with Colorado on Feb. 25 after missing nearly 10 months with foot ailments.

LOS ANGELES - Having lost three times to the Heat during Miami's historic 24-game winning streak, the 76ers will get a chance to play another streaking team on Thursday. Denver (47-22) will play host to the Sixers on Thursday night as it tries to extend its winning streak to 14 games. "I think with all of the hoopla around the Heat, a lot of teams are sleeping on Denver," Sixers forward Thaddeus Young said Wednesday as the team prepared to face the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Clippers.

As Philadelphia has learned, building a new stadium is seldom easy. But Denver officials might reasonably have figured that any rough spots on the road to a new home for their Broncos football team were behind them. Local residents had already voted a sales-tax increase to pay for a stadium. The location, right next to the old stadium, was not much of an issue. Construction has moved without a hitch toward the planned opening next year. But now it develops that there's still one big sticking point - the name.

Terrell Davis breezed untouched into the Green Bay end zone from 1 yard out, putting Denver ahead by a touchdown with less than two minutes left in the Super Bowl, apparently because the Packers wanted him to. "I wanted the ball back," Packers coach Mike Holmgren said yesterday. Instead of attempting a time-consuming goal-line stand, the Packers let Davis score on second and goal, and then had 1 minute, 45 seconds and two time-outs to come back. Holmgren said he'd mistakenly thought it was first and goal when Davis scored, instead of second and goal.

If you travel this country a lot, chances are you eventually will pass through the Mile-High City. And chances are that, thanks to always-jammed Stapleton International Airport and Colorado's fickle weather, you may stay longer than you really want to. Indeed, it's not unusual to hear travelers tell horror stories of having to camp out in Stapleton's cramped corridors or in a downtown hotel for several days, waiting out the storms that blitz the...

Confined public space, cramped aircraft seat, mile high? No problem. Murali Krishna Nookella, a local Internet technology employee on his way to Denver for a conference, masturbated in front of the woman sitting next to him during a Southwest Airlines flight originating in Philadelphia, according to a federal affidavit. "You caught me," he told the shocked woman. "Yeah, I did," she replied. When Nookella got off Flight 228 on Monday, he was arrested and subsequently charged with obscene and indecent exposure, a misdemeanor, "by exhibiting his penis to a female passenger," according to the federal criminal complaint filed in Denver.

DENVER - Seven months removed from the trade that sent him to Denver, Andre Iguodala still has nothing but good things to say about his former 76ers teammates. "I try to look forward," said Iguodala, who was sent to Denver in the four-team trade that brought injured center Andrew Bynum to Philadelphia. "I don't live with regrets. I still talk to the guys in Philly. But we talk mostly about things outside of basketball. I talk to Jrue [Holiday] about getting married. . . . And I talk with Evan [Turner]

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)

When: Sunday at 9 p.m. (CSN) Records: 76ers (26-42; 9th in Eastern Conference); Kings (25-44 going into last night's game at Denver; 12th in Western Conference). Last meeting: The Sixers won, 89-80, at the Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 1. Thaddeus Young had 23 points and 15 rebounds, and Jrue Holiday scored 21 points. The 76ers were still a playoff hopeful after that win, running their record to 20-26 and still chasing eighth place. Outlook: This is the Sixers' first game since the collapse against the Nuggets in Denver on Thursday night, when they blew an eight-point lead late in the fourth quarter.

On Jan. 11, 1994, Pennsylvania oil executive John M. Iannone parked his van at the Pittsburgh airport, spread blood and bullet casings inside to suggest foul play, and vanished with $470,000 of his investors' money. He left behind a wife and three children, a big house in the suburbs, and what police later discovered was a bizarre - and fraudulent - persona as a high-profile Vietnam War hero and pillar of the local veterans community. Last month, a Colorado oil speculator who called himself Wayne D. Hamilton and who claimed to be a decorated Vietnam War commando, disappeared from his home near Denver, making off, friends said, with almost $100,000 of their money.