Avalanche Blows By Blackhawks

Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg scored third-period goals, leading the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.

Sakic snapped a 1-1 tie early in the period with his team-high 24th goal, and Forsberg followed four minutes later with his 20th.

Sakic, breaking a five-game goal drought, used a quick burst to set up a shot from the slot at 4:43 after Alexei Gusarov kept the puck in the zone, fighting off two defenders.

Forsberg spun adroitly around defenseman Keith Carney to get off a shot from the right circle at 8:54.

Chicago's Alexei Zhamnov made it 3-2 at 14:10, poking in a rebound of a shot by Tony Amonte.

The Blackhawks pulled goalie Jeff Hackett in the final minute, and Shean Donovan scored into an empty net at 19:35.

Patrick Roy had 32 saves, and Hackett stopped 34.

Colorado's Claude Lemieux had the lone goal of the first period. Stationed alone in front of the net, Lemieux took a pass from behind the goal by Forsberg and beat Hackett at 5:19 for his 19th goal. The power-play goal broke a string of 24 straight penalty kills by the Blackhawks on their current road trip.

Amonte tied it late in the second period with his 20th goal, carrying the puck from mid-ice and racing into the left circle, where his shot went between Roy's legs at 15:09.

Roy turned aside three shots in a Chicago flurry early in the period. Hackett later stopped Sakic on a breakaway, then smothered the puck as Adam Deadmarsh and Rene Corbet attempted to jam in the rebound.

Despite the loss, the Blackhawks, in the fifth stop of a six-game road trip which concludes Saturday in Dallas, are 7-4-0 in their last 11 road games.

The Blackhawks were without their fifth-leading scorer, Gary Suter, who was serving the second game of a four-game suspension for cross-checking Anaheim star Paul Kariya on Sunday.

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