Colorado’s Roy Does Honors in 3-2 Victory Over Montreal

As always, Patrick Roy is thinking about the ultimate prize.

On a night when the Montreal Canadiens honored their former goaltender in a ceremony that touched Roy, he preferred to look ahead.

“Right now I’m focused on having a very good year and hopefully at the end I’ll have a good chance to win the Stanley Cup,” Roy said Tuesday night after leading the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 overtime victory over the Canadiens at Montreal. “This is where my focus is. What’s going to happen tomorrow? I haven’t thought about it for now.”

Joe Sakic finished off a three-on-one break and scored his 33rd goal 2:21 into overtime as the Avalanche ended a season-worst four-game losing streak.

“They played a tight game, they didn’t give us a lot of room at all,” Sakic said. “It was tough sledding out there and the bottom line is we found a way to win the hockey game. It wasn’t pretty or anything, but hopefully this is something we can build on.”

Colorado’s Chris Drury scored early in the first period and assisted on Milan Hejduk’s go-ahead goal with 15:59 to play in the third. Montreal tied the score later in the period when Trevor Linden was credited with his 300th NHL goal on a strange play.

Linden was credited with the milestone goal when Colorado’s Raymond Bourque inadvertently put the puck past Roy midway through the third period.

“Of the 300, that one was probably the ugliest,” Linden said.

Rookie defenseman Andrei Markov also scored for Montreal, which has won only once in nine games against Roy.

Dallas 2, Nashville 1--Brett Hull scored a power-play goal in the first period and Mike Modano added a goal and an assist for the Stars at Nashville.

The Stars outshot the Predators, 35-24, and beat them for the third time in one-goal games between the teams.

Phoenix 5, Tampa Bay 2--Joe Juneau and Travis Green scored 27 seconds apart midway through the second period for the Coyotes at Tampa, Fla.

Jeremy Roenick also scored a second-period goal for Phoenix and moved within two goals of becoming the third U.S.-born player to score 400.

Atlanta 5, Buffalo 4--Ray Ferraro of the Thrashers scored three goals and teammate Hnat Domenichelli scored two, the second with 5:53 to play at Atlanta.

It was the second hat trick of the season and 10th of his career for Ferraro, 36, who has scored five goals in three games.

Domenichelli, sidelined because of an injured groin for five weeks, scored for the first time since Dec. 26.

Calgary 4, Washington 4--Marc Savard had two goals and an assist for the Flames at Calgary.

The tie enabled both teams to extend unbeaten streaks. The Flames are unbeaten in five (3-0-2), the Capitals in seven (5-0-2).

Savard tied the score on the only goal of the third period when he scored his 20th on a power play.