Colorado Leaves Bruins in Daze

Boston Coach Robbie Ftorek said the Colorado players “were just everywhere on the ice.”

Bruin defenseman Sean O’Donnell said “it felt like they had six or seven guys out there.”

Joe Sakic, Rob Blake and rookie Radim Vrbata each had a goal and an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche ended a four-game losing streak at home, defeating the Bruins, 5-2, Monday night.

With one game remaining before the Olympic break, first-place Colorado extended its lead to seven points over Edmonton in the Northwest Division.

“We want to finish these games [before the break] and focus,” Sakic said. “We have been pretty frustrated with the way that things were going, and tonight was a very good game. Everybody skated and we did a better job in the neutral zone and forechecked and kept the puck out of our end.”

The Bruins, down 3-0, got two goals in the second period to pull within 3-2 and had a chance to tie the score, but Adam Foote made a lunging deflection with his stick to keep Bill Guerin from scoring.

Less than two minutes later, Vrbata scored on a rebound.

“That’s why you put your stick on the ice, that’s why you put your stick in the lane,” Ftorek said. “We weren’t as prepared as we needed to be.”

Blake, Stephane Yelle and Sakic scored first-period goals and Colorado outshot Boston, 10-3.

Patrick Roy made 16 saves for the Avalanche. Backup John Grahame stopped 20 shots for the Bruins, who were 5-0-1 in their previous six games.

Washington 3, Tampa Bay 1--Sergei Gonchar and Adam Oates scored 19 seconds apart in the second period at Washington.

The Capitals finished their four-game stretch between the All-Star and Olympic breaks by gaining seven of a possible eight points, building momentum in their drive for a playoff berth.

Washington is 12-1-1 in its last 14 games against Tampa Bay, which got a goal from Zdeno Ciger.

Detroit 3, Montreal 2--Brendan Shanahan scored with 13.2 seconds left in the third period, lifting the Red Wings at Montreal.

Shanahan recovered a rebound in the corner and banked a shot off goalie Jose Theodore from the right corner for his 30th goal this season and 496th of his career.

Sergei Fedorov scored twice for the Red Wings, who got captain Steve Yzerman back in the lineup.

Yzerman sat out six games following knee surgery.

Toronto 5, Atlanta 4--Tomas Kaberle scored twice at Toronto, including the go-ahead goal with 4:27 remaining.

Kaberle tied the score, 1-1, at 10:29 of the first period.

Gary Roberts, Jonas Hoglund and Mats Sundin also scored for the Maple Leafs, who rallied from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits.

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Colorado acquired forward Mike Keane from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for forward Shjon Podein.

Keane, 34, earned one of his three Stanley Cup rings with the Avalanche in 1995-96. He has four goals and six assists this season.

Podein, 33, has six goals and six assists. He sat out the last eight games because of a knee injury.