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Avalanche try to rebound from tough loss at Minnesota

Oct 5, 2006 - 2:07 PM Colorado (0-0-1) at Minnesota (0-0-0) 8:30 pm EDT

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) - The Colorado Avalanche initially looked like they were in good shape against the Dallas Stars in their season opener.

But the Avalanche dropped a hard-fought 3-2 overtime decision, and look to regroup on Thursday when they face the Minnesota Wild in the hosts' season opener.

Colorado, which defeated the Stars in the opening round of last spring's Stanley Cup playoffs, received goals from Joe Sakic and Wojtek Wolski 46 seconds apart for a 2-0 lead in the first period.

The score stayed that way until Mike Modano and Loui Eriksson scored goals just 28 seconds apart very early in the third period to tie the game.

The Stars got the game-winner 2:07 into overtime when goaltender Marty Turco shoveled a long pass to a streaking Darryl Sydor, who picked up the puck at center ice and raced in on Colorado netminder Jose Theodore and beat him high to the stick side.

Colorado, which outshot Dallas, 38-33, went 2-for-9 on the power play.

Last season, the Wild (38-36-8) had lots of difficulty in scoring goals, one reason for their last-place finish in the Northwest Division.

The Wild only managed 2.76 goals per game, 25th in the league. A below-average power play, which only clicked at a 17 percent efficiency rate, hampered the offense.

But Minnesota made a huge offseason move, landing sniper Pavol Demitra in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings. The Wild think Demitra will complement right wing Marian Gaborik and give them some more offensive punch.

Colorado won five of the eight games played between the clubs last season.

Avalanche center Joe Sakic needs 10 points to become the 11th player in NHL history with 1,500.