The Colorado extended their winning run at home to six games with a 4-3 shoot-out victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. Chris Stewart scored the decisive goal in the eighth round of the shoot out for the Avalanche . "I had him in Lake Erie [of the AHL] and he had a knack for scoring in the shoot out," the Colorado coach Joe Sacco said of Stewart. "I had a good feeling that when he was going, he was going to score."
Ryan O'Reilly (2) and David Jones scored in regulation time for the Avalanche but goals from Dustin Byfuglien, Duncan Keith and Andrew Ladd meant Chicago earned a point from the game Yann Denis made 23 saves against his former team as the New Jersey Devils made it four wins in a row with a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders. "Every time I get to play I want to get the win, but to win against those guys makes it more special," said the goaltender.
Daniel Carcillo scored twice as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-2, while Brendan Morrison did likewise for the Washington Capitals, who beat the Florida Panthers 4-1. Jason Blake scored the winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs' won their second game of the season - a 3-2 victory over the marginally more hapless Carolina Hurricanes, who have lost 11 games in a row. The win saw Toronto climb above Carolina in the standings and leave the Hurricanes bottom of the league.
"Whenever they scored, we seemed to sag at that point - maybe feeling sorry for ourselves," said the Toronto coach Ron Wilson. "We have to get mad at some point. I said to the team: 'We've only got one win in 13 games. When's somebody going to get mad?' " The back-up goalie Cory Schneider made 45 saves for the Vancouver Canucks but it was not enough as they lost 2-1 to the Dallas Stars.
Meanwhile, Alberta's health board said a second person has been fired for helping set up a private clinic for Calgary Flames players to get the H1N1 flu vaccine. * With agencies