Canucks And Avs Fight To Tie

Marc Crawford's first game back in Colorado wasn't the triumphant return he hoped it would be. It wasn't a losing one, either.

Adam Deadmarsh scored his second goal of the game at 7:09 of the third period Tuesday night, lifting the Colorado Avalanche into a 4-4 tie with Crawford's Vancouver Canucks.

"It was great to be back and it was nice to get a point," said Crawford, who coached the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup title three years ago but who departed under bitter circumstances last spring.

"Any time you give a team like that as many power plays that we did (eight), especially the 5-on-3s, you are going to be hard pressed to keep their superstar people off the goalie. But it was a fun game for the players to play."

Sandis Ozolinsh had four assists for Colorado, while Vancouver's Markus Naslund had two shorthanded goals and an assist.

It was a franchise-record fourth consecutive tie for the Avalanche, who have gone 0-2-4 since their 12-game winning streak ended Feb. 7.

The Canucks snapped a three-game losing streak during which they had been outscored by a combined 17-2.

Vancouver goalie Garth Snow had 39 saves, and Colorado's Craig Billington, who started in place of the injured Patrick Roy, had 23.

Naslund said the Canucks "wanted to play hard for Marc. It was obvously a special thing for him to come back for the first time. I think we could have won the game if we had stayed out of the (penalty) box."

Crawford, however, insisted he detected no special motivation on the part of his players.

"No, I think our players just strived to perform better than we have the previous three games," he said. "We talked about getting a consistent 60-minute effort and pushing ourselves for the full 60 minutes."

The Canucks are now 3-8-2 since Crawford succeeded Mike Keenan as head coach on Jan. 24.

Colorado players said they really weren't aware of Crawford's presence. "I was concentrating on the game," Ozolinsh said. "It wasn't as if he was on the ice. The only thing I noticed was he didn't yell at me when I made a mistake."

Colorado coach Bob Hartley called the outcome "a happy tie. It's safe to say we dominated the game, but Garth Snow came up with some big saves at the right time."

Naslund scored both of his shorthanded goals in the first period as the Canucks built a 3-1 lead.

Moments after Vancouver's Dave Gagner went to the penalty box early in the game, Naslund scored on a breakaway from just left of the crease at 4:09.

Colorado countered with a power-play goal at 4:48 when Milan Hejduk's shot from the point deflected off the skate of a leaping Chris Drury into the net.

Vancouver's Bill Muckalt, the NHL's leading scorer among rookies, broke an 11-game goal-less streak at 7:33 when, cutting through the slot, he nearly whiffed on the puck but the slow-motion shot went through Billington's legs.

At 11:44, Naslund got another shorthanded goal, beating Billington from the left circle. It was the Canucks' 15th shorthanded goal of the season, which leads the NHL.

Colorado tied it with a pair of power-play goals in the second period.

The Canucks were assessed a bench minor for having too many men on the ice, and 32 seconds later Bryan McCabe went off on a four-minute high-sticking penalty, giving Colorado a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:28. Deadmarsh scored from the slot 10 seconds later at 7:08.

Still with a man advantage for the next 3:50, the Avalanche got even when Peter Forsberg raked in a goal from the crease at 10:19.

Adrian Aucoin's power-play goal put Vancouver ahead 4-3 at 2:07 of the third period. Colorado again had a 5-on-3 advantage, and eadmarsh tied it when his rebound shot deflected off McCabe's skate.

Roy, who had started the previous 16 games, was sidelined with a strained groin muscle.

The Canucks were without two of their four leading scorers -- Alexander Mogilny (groin) and Mark Messier (knee) as well as defenseman Ed Jovanovski (broken foot).

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