• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Sakic gets Colorado going early in rout of Sharks

Oct 8, 2007 - 3:18 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Joe Sakic got the Colorado Avalanche off to a good start and they put the San Jose Sharks away with a strong finish.

Sakic passed a couple of NHL legends with a goal and an assist in the first period and Colorado added four goals in the first eight minutes of the third period as the Avalanche rolled to a 6-2 victory over the Sharks on Sunday.

The Avalanche captain, Sakic scored his first goal of the season on a 5-on-3 power play with 4:42 remaining in the first period and passed Bobby Hull for sole possession of 14th place on the NHL's all-time goal scoring list with 611.

Sakic beat Evgeni Nabokov with a wrist shot from between the circles after taking a feed from Paul Stastny, who had a goal and four assists to record his second multi-point game of the year. In two home games, Stastny has produced four goals and four assists.

"He's such a good player every time he gets a point or a goal you always expect him to pass someone on a list," Stastny said. "With him being the special player that he is, he's not done yet."

Just under two minutes later, Sakic picked up an assist on Milan Hejduk's power-play goal and passed Phil Esposito for eighth place on the NHL's all-time scoring list with 1,591 points.

"To be mentioned with Phil Esposito and Bobby Hull, Those guys are legends and did a lot for the game of hockey," Sakic said. "Anytime you can get anywhere near those guys, it's a honor."

Hejduk took Sakic's outlet pass down the right boards, skated around San Jose's Douglas Murray and beat Nabokov with a wrist shot for the bottom of the right circle.

Colorado preserved its lead in the opening session by killing a four-minute San Jose power play after Hejduk received a double minor for clipping Milan Michalek.

Ryane Clowe put the Sharks on the board in the second period when he put the rebound of a Joe Pavelski shot from the right circle past Peter Budaj with a wrist shot from the lower slot.

"We had some tough shifts in our own end and they got some momentum back when they scored that first goal," said Colorado coach Joel Quenneville, who needs just four wins to reach No. 400 as an NHL coach. "Coming out of the period with the lead, we were thankful. At the same time, I like the way we responded in the third."

Leading 2-1 entering the final session, Colorado put the game out of reach with a barrage of goals.

Paul Stastny made it 3-1 with a goal :51 seconds into the final period. Hejduk added his second of the game just under two minutes later and Marek Svatos extended the lead to 5-1 with 12:12 to play.

Ryan Smyth picked up his first point as a member of the Avs when he assisted on Hejduk's second goal. Smyth added his first goal for Colorado 18 seconds after Svatos scored.

"Things kind of unraveled a little bit," Kyle McLaren said. "We kind of came out of the gate slow and picked it up in the second. We were fine going into the third and needed to correct some things. We corrected them the wrong way."