Avalanche, Coyotes On Separate Courses

The power play is starting to come around for the Colorado Avalanche. But it will have to go a long way to beat their penalty-killing unit.

Peter Forsberg scored twice, including a short-handed goal, and Stephane Yelle also scored while a man down Friday night as the Avalanche ran their unbeaten streak to eight games with a 4-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes, at Phoenix.

Forsberg opened the scoring with a power-play goal for the Avalanche (10-4-3), then put the game away by scoring short-handed with 3:07 remaining.

“All the goals were huge tonight,” Colorado coach Marc Crawford said. “I think we got the monkey off our backs with the power-play goals.”

Keith Jones also scored a power-play goal, while Sandis Ozolinsh and Sylvain Lefebvre had two assists each. The Avalanche entered Friday night having converted just 5 of 43 man-advantage situations on the road, then did it twice in the opening period.

The defending Stanley Cup champions have not lost since a 5-1 setback Oct. 22 at Calgary, going 6-0-2 since.

The Coyotes were held scoreless until 6:11 remained in the contest, when Mike Gartner got his team-leading 11th goal. Phoenix has struggled since a promising start, going just 2-6-2 in its last 10 outings.

Holan visits Mighty Ducks

Anaheim Mighty Ducks defenseman Milos Holan made his first return to the team to say hello after his bone marrow transplant for a slow-progressing form of leukemia.

“I am very happy to be here tonight,” Holan said. “Very excited, too, and nervous. For a long time I haven’t seen them. And there are so many new faces.”

Holan was diagnosed with chronic granulocytic leukemia, a malignant disorder of the bone marrow. He underwent a bone marrow transplant on Feb. 21.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Holan said. “I’m still having some stomach trouble. I’m trying to eat too much because I lost 60 pounds.”

The Ducks defeated the Los Angeles Kings 7-4.

Taking care of business

Howie Meeker plans to take his wife on vacation, Gary Smith will buy a race horse and Dennis Ververgaert will invest in mortgage funds.

Neal Broten could buy himself dinner in an expensive restaurant, if he skips dessert.

About 1,400 retired NHL players finally will receive pension payments starting as early as next month after five years of litigation.

The pension settlements were published by the Globe and Mail this week after an Ontario Court ruled in favor of the players, awarding $41.1 million in Canadian funds.

The league is slowing its expansion agenda, saying that the number of groups seeking franchises is more than it expected.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said 11 applications from nine cities had been received, making it too difficult to choose two new franchises by Dec. 12, as had been anticipated.

On the ice

At Tampa, Fla., Shawn Burr’s rebound goal with 43.2 seconds left lifted the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-5 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins, keeping Pittsburgh winless on the road.

Also, the Lightning announced that goaltender Daren Puppa will undergo surgery Monday in Los Angeles to repair a herniated disc.

The Detroit Red Wings, with early goals from Kris Draper, Martin Lapointe and Doug Brown, played a strong defensive game to stop the Whalers 4-1, at Hartford, Conn.

Goaltender Mike Vernon stopped just 14 shots for the Red Wings, who have limited the opposition to two or less goals in 14 of 17 games this season.

First-period goals by Tony Granato and Andrei Nazarov sparked the San Jose Sharks to a 3-1 victory over the Dallas Stars at San Jose, Calif.

At Vancouver, B.C., rookie Harry York’s fifth goal of the season 8 minutes into the third period helped the St. Louis Blues to a 4-2 victory over Vancouver.