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  Thursday, Mar. 16 9:00pm ET
Dunham makes Avs settle for tie
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

DENVER (AP) -- With four goals in his last four games, Ray Bourque has moved within one of a coveted career milestone.

Bourque scored his 399th career goal -- most by an NHL defenseman -- and the Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators skated to a 2-2 tie Thursday night, snapping Colorado's six-game winning streak.

When Bourque came to the Avalanche 10 days ago in a trade with the Boston Bruins, he had just 10 goals this season. Now he has 14.

"I didn't think 400 was attainable a couple of weeks ago," he said. "It's happened pretty quick, and it will be a nice number if I can hit it."

Colorado's Patrick Roy made 17 saves and remained at 439 career wins, eight short of Terry Sawchuk's NHL record.

Bourque made it 1-1 late in the second period with his fourth goal for Colorado, all on power plays.

"When you have (Peter) Forsberg on the wing, (Joe) Sakic down low, (Adam) Deadmarsh down front and (Sandis) Ozolinsh just wandering all over the place, those are guys you have to cover," Bourque said. "So somebody's got to be open. When they want to tie up the guys down low, it opens me up.

"Deadmarsh does a great job in front of the net in terms of blocking the goalie's view. The last two goals I've scored are because the goalie couldn't see it."

Shjon Podein scored his 10th goal at 2:07 of the third period, taking a pass from Martin Skoula in the slot and beating Nashville's Mike Dunham, who had 34 saves.

Sebastien Bordeleau tied it with a shot from the slot at 17:52.

"That's a pretty good hockey team," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said of the Avalanche. "They've been hot. Any time you can come back against an opponent like that on the road, it's a good point (in the standings). We got very good goaltending. They loaded up two lines on us, and we were able to weather a storm (of Colorado shots) in the second period.

"We had to have some big efforts tonight, and we did."

Nashville's David Legwand scored the only goal in a first period that saw both teams skate tentatively and create few scoring chances, with Nashville holding a 4-3 edge in shots on goal.

At 15:03, Cliff Ronning sent a long pass into the boards to the left of the goal. The puck ricocheted past Roy, who left the crease to chase it, and it angled to Legwand in the right circle, who beat Roy before he could scramble back into position.

Bourque tied it with his 14th goal, a power play at 17:30 of the second period. The Avalanche stepped up their pressure on Dunham in the period, outshooting the Predators 11-2 early in the period. Bourque scored from just inside the blue line after taking a pass from Sakic.

Bordeleau hit the post on a breakaway.

Colorado had eight shots in overtime, but Dunham made several acrobatic saves, including two off Forsberg.

Sakic extended his points streak to eight games.
 


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