Senators Stop Avalanche

Ottawa Senators goalie Ron Tugnutt can now add a first to his NHL resume.

"I've never beaten them before, even back through the Quebec days," Tugnutt said after his Ottawa Senators beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 on Thursday night.

"Everybody knows that when we get a lead, we're tough," Tugnutt said. "There always seems to be too many blocked shots in front of me to count."

Rob Zamuner, Magnus Arvedson, Wade Redden and Andreas Dackell scored for the Senators (5-2-1-0), who halted a two-game losing streak. Alex Tanguay scored for Colorado (4-3-2-0).

"It was obvious from the beginning that we were in this game," Tugnutt said.

But the win may be costly for the Senators. Captain Daniel Alfredsson left the game with an injured right knee with about five minutes left in the first period. He is to be evaluated Friday.

Tugnutt appeared to have his 12th career shutout in hand until Tanguay, an early rookie-of-the-year candidate, beat him at 10:17 of the third period just after the Avalanche had failed to get a shot on goal with a two-man advantage for 1:34.

Ottawa right wing Kevin Dinee was honored in a pre-game ceremony prior to his 1,000th NHL game. Joining him on the ice was his family, including his father, Bill, who was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday.

"It was an exciting night with Kevin's 1,000th game," said Senators rookie Mike Fisher, who had two assists in the fourth game of his career.

"Mike was two when Kevin played his first game," Tugnutt observed.

Colorado's three-game winning streak and four-game unbeaten string came to an end.

"They beat us to the puck, they were very strong," said Colorado coach Bob Hartley. "On many occasions, (goaltender) Patrick Roy was out there by himself."

Said Roy: "We have a young team now and we're going to have nights like these."

Roy has started all but one of Colorado's nine games this season and remained 13 wins behind third-place Jacques Plante (434) on the all-time list.

Zamuner opened the scoring with his second of the season, 6:43 into the game, tucking the puck around the post from behind the net. Ottawa held a 12-2 shot advantage at the time.

Arvedson gave Ottawa a two-goal lead at 11:10 of the second period and Redden made it 3-0 just 2:17 later, firing a shot over a sprawling Roy on Ottawa's third shot of the play.

"We came hard and just kept going to the net," Redden said. "Every goal was a rebound goal."

Dackell added his first goal of the season with 31 seconds left in the second period.

"We definitely didn't show up," Colorado's Adam Deadmarsh said. "We didn't deserve to win."

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