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Avalanche rally for rare road win over Red Wings

Mar 4, 2007 - 11:21 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Brad Richardson and the Colorado Avalanche finally ended their drought at Joe Louis Arena.

Richardson scored the game-winning goal midway through overtime to lift the Avalanche to a 4-3 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings.

Colorado ended its four-game skid here and won for just the second time in its last 10 overall meetings with Detroit. It was the Avalanche's first road victory against the Red Wings since February 14, 2004.

"I don't remember the last time we won here," said Colorado right wing Milan Hejduk, who had a goal and an assist. "It might be a while. It was a good game. I have a pretty good feeling now. If we can put a few more wins together, it will be nice."

"We had the puck a little bit more," Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville added. "(The Red Wings were) still real dangerous. They kept coming there at the end. We stuck with it and got rewarded, but it's tough going to get points here."

The Avalanche also ended a four-game road slide thanks to Richardson, who finished off a pretty breakaway for his second game-winning goal this season.

Colorado rookie Wojtek Wolski gained possession in the neutral zone and carried the puck through the left faceoff circle. The Polish left wing threaded a pass between the legs of Detroit defenseman Matthieu Schneider to Richardson, who banged a rebound past Chris Osgood after the netminder denied his initial shot.

"It was just laying there, and I poked it," Richardson said. "It squeaked under him somehow. It was nice to see it go in. Wolski made a great play. It kind of poked off him a little bit, and then he made a great pass."

Peter Budaj made 31 saves while Wolski and Paul Stastny each had two assists for the Avalanche, who improved to 2-1-1 against the Red Wings this season.

"We found an identity and now we're playing well together," Stastny said. "We're looking to get one game at a time."

Osgood stopped 23 shots and Kris Draper tallied twice for Detroit (41-16-9), which entered the contest two points behind first-place Nashville (44-18-4) in the Central Division. The Predators, who own the top record in the Western Conference, visit Anaheim on Sunday night.

"We didn't have the sense of urgency we usually have," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "This is our building, and we're supposed to set the worth ethic. That wasn't the case today at all."

Colorado took a 3-2 lead at 8:41 of the third period when Brett McLean tallied off a feed from Hejduk. But the Red Wings forged a 3-3 tie with 1:27 left in regulation on Draper's second goal of the contest.