DENVER, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Vaclav Nedorost scored a goal and set up another in the second period of his NHL debut and Patrick Roy stopped 32 shots Wednesday night as the Colorado Avalanche opened defense of their Stanley Cup championship with a 3-1 triumph over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The 14th overall pick in the 2000 draft, Nedorost broke up a scoreless game on the power play at 1:51 of the second. He took a pass from Steven Reinprecht and fired a wrist shot from low in the right faceoff circle that trickled off goaltender Johan Hedberg and into the net.
Less than eight minutes later, the 19-year-old Nedorost carried into the Penguins' zone and dropped the puck for Milan Hejduk, who flipped a pass in front of the net. Joe Sakic, the reigning Hart Trophy winner, got away from defenseman Darius Kasparaitis' check and put a wrister by Hedberg for his 458th NHL goal.
Chris Drury beat Hedberg on a breakaway 8:12 into the third period to extend Colorado's lead to 3-0. That was more than enough for Roy, who lost his shutout bid on Robert Lang's goal with 6:59 to play.
But that was all Pittsburgh could get past the winningest goalie in NHL history as Roy helped the Avalanche improve the league's best record in season openers to 14-4-5. He also extended his unbeaten streak against the Penguins to 11 games (9
2).
Colorado took to the ice a little less than four months after capturing its second championship in six years. Missing were Ray Bourque, who retired after realizing his Stanley Cup dream, and Peter Forsberg, who announced last month he was taking a leave of absence.
Five weeks after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, the Penguins traded Jaromir Jagr -- a five-time NHL scoring champion -- to the Washington Capitals for three prospects.
One of those youngsters was Kris Beech, who nearly put Pittsburgh in front, but shot off the right goalpost with 3:26 to go in the first period. Alexei Kovalev hit the same post early in the period from along the goal line.
