Avalanche 3, Penguins 1 By ALAN ROBINSON AP Sports Writer Wednesday October 03, 2001 11:10 PM PITTSBURGH (AP) - Vaclav Nedorost had a goal and an assist in his first NHL game and Patrick Roy, as dominating at the start of a new season as he was at the end of last season for Stanley Cup champion Colorado, shut down Pittsburgh in the Avalanche's 3-1 victory Wednesday night. Roy, the playoffs MVP last season as Colorado won its second cup in five years, turned aside 32 of 33 shots and was working on his 53rd career shutout until Robert Lang scored with 6:59 remaining in the opening night game. Mario Lemieux had a quiet night for Pittsburgh in his first season opener in five years, setting up a couple of good scoring chances but getting few of his own as the Penguins played their first game since 1989 without five-time scoring champion Jaromir Jagr on their roster. Colorado's mastery of the Penguins is nothing new - the Avalanche are 7-0-1 in Pittsburgh since moving to Denver in 1995 - but some of the players are. The Avs have 10 players on their season-opening roster who weren't there last season, including Nedorost, a 19-year-old rookie and a 2000 first-round draft pick who scored Colorado's first goal and set up its second. Nedorost, the star of the Czech Republic's gold medal team in the world junior championships this year, took a back pass from Steven Reinprecht in the right circle and flipped a wrist shot that glanced off Johan Hedberg's pads and into the net on a power play at 1:51 of the second. Until then, the Penguins had forced the play offensively, outshooting Colorado 14-6 in the first period without getting a shot by Roy, who is 23-8-6 against them. Nedorost, playing at the time on Colorado's top line, then got the second assist on Joe Sakic's chip-shot goal from the low slot at 9:28 of the second. Sakic managed to get his stick on the puck even as defenseman Darius Kasparaitis screened him from the net. Chris Drury came off the bench, went to the net and put in a rebound of Alex Tanguay's shot past a sprawling Hedberg at 8:12 of the third to make it 3-0. The Avalanche effectively controlled Pittsburgh's dangerous offense even while playing without two of their top three defensemen from a year ago - Ray Bourque, who retired after 22 seasons, and Adam Foote, who is injured and is expected to miss about a month. Pittsburgh went 0-for-5 on the power play and is 0-for-12 against Colorado the last two seasons. Notes: The final score was the same as Colorado's Game 7 victory over New Jersey in the Stanley Cup finals. ... Colorado won in Pittsburgh 5-1 last season. ... The teams won't meet again this season unless they reach the Stanley Cup finals. The Penguins do not play in Denver. ... With Jagr gone, Lemieux again wears the "C" as the Penguins' captain, as well as being their CEO, chairman and owner. ... The Penguins played their home opener before the Steelers did. They don't play in Heinz Field until Sunday. ... Colorado forward Eric Messier injured a shoulder while being slammed into the boards by Stephane Richer in the first period and did not return. Richer was penalized. ... Colorado is 9-1-3 in its last 13 games against Pittsburgh.
