Roy Ties Record With Avs' Win

Patrick Roy caught up to an old detractor and Dale Hunter beat up on some old friends.

Roy tied Jacques Plante for the most overall career victories in NHL history with 505 and Hunter had an empty-net goal against his former team as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 on Friday night.

Roy, who finished with 19 saves, has won 406 regular-season games and 99 playoff games. He is 41 regular-season victories away from Terry Sawchuk's NHL record of 447.

Not bad for a guy who Plante predicted would never amount to much in the NHL.

"It's nice where I am right now, but what's more important is where I am when I retire," Roy said. "I just want to keep going and make sure I am ready for the playoffs."

Hunter, traded from Washington to Colorado on Tuesday, scored his first goal since April 18, 1998, but made a bigger impact with his aggressive play as he showed no sign of going easy on his former teammates.

He finished his checks, instigated a shoving match in the corner and inadvertently popped Brian Bellows in the face with a high stick. Bellows needed stitches over his right eye after the game.

"This one was tough because they were my friends," said Hunter, who played 12 seasons in Washington. "These were guys I battled with through the years. To play against them makes it tough."

Aaron Miller broke a third-period tie with his fifth goal of the season, and Stephane Yelle also scored for the Avalanche, who won back-to-back home games for the first time since late January.

Claude Lemieux and Theo Fleury each added two assists to help Colorado remain five points ahead of Detroit for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

"Goals were hard to come by, but there wasn't nearly the intensity of a playoff game," Miller said. "There weren't a lot of scoring chances or shots, but I didn't think either team realltook it to the other."

The Capitals, who have just eight goals in their last six games, tied the game at 1 on Bellows' 14th goal of the season 5:58 into the third. The score came on a bad-angle shot that trickled through Roy's legs and just over the goal line.

It was justice for Bellows after he had a long slap shot disallowed earlier in the period because Trevor Halverson's left skate was in the crease.

"The second one trickles through. I told Patrick he can't get lucky twice in one game," Bellows said.

Miller gave Colorado the lead less than five minutes later when he blasted a shot from the blue line over Olaf Kolzig's right shoulder.

Jeff Toms hit the goal post with 5:45 remaining, but Hunter sealed the victory with his long empty-net goal with 52 seconds left as the Capitals fell to 1-30-2 when trailing after two periods.

"We'll just work on some things with different individuals because I like the way we're forechecking," said Washington coach Ron Wilson, whose team has been decimated by injuries and recent trades. "It's tough because you look at who's missing on defense, but I don't think we should change our style."

After squandering a 56-second 5-on-3 chance at the end of the first period and start of the second, Colorado finally broke through on Yelle's eighth goal at 15:33.

Yelle, camped out near the crease, deflected Sylvain Lefebvre's shot from the blue line over Kolzig's left shoulder for his first goal since Jan. 28.

Kolzig finished with 22 saves.

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