Avs overcome trouble at home, keep Blues tied

DENVER -- Mike Keane kept the Colorado Avalanche's home record from getting even worse.

Keane scored the tying goal in the third period, and Joe Sakic added a goal and an assist in Colorado's 4-4 tie Wednesday night with the Blues.

"All we've heard has been the negative talk," Keane said. "The best part about this was we got back up twice after being down. We can build on what we did."

Vaclav Nedorost and Dan Hinote also scored for the Avalanche 2-4-5-1 at home. Patrick Roy stopped 32 shots.

"We showed a lot of character tonight, coming back from a two-goal deficit twice," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "Our club made a couple of mistakes that cost us goals, but we also did a lot of good things."

Keith Tkachuk scored his fifth goal in seven games for St. Louis. Scott Mellanby, Bryce Salvador and Cory Stillman also had goals for the Blues, 0-2-1 in their last three games.

The Blues took a 4-3 lead early in the third period on goals by Salvador and Stillman. Salvador converted a pass from Stillman at 50 seconds, and Stillman stole the puck from Colorado defenseman Derek Morris and stuffed the puck past Roy at 2:57.

"We jumped their defensemen pretty good on those plays," Stillman said. "The puck just jumped over the defenseman's stick on my goal."

Sakic set up Keane's wrist shot from the middle of the right circle to tie it 4-4 at 7:31.

St. Louis outshot the Avalanche 6-0 in overtime. Roy made big saves on Tkachuk and Stillman during a power play.

Mellanby extended the St. Louis lead to 2-0, stealing a pass from Morris and sending a one-timer past Roy at 10:19 of the second period.

Colorado scored three unanswered goals, 4 minutes, 58 seconds apart, to take a 3-2 lead. Nedorost deflected a pass from Martin Skoula into the net at 12:29.

"We were playing perfect until Nedorost's goal," St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had given them nothing, and all of a sudden they had a lot of life."

With Greg de Vries off for high-sticking, St. Louis took a 1-0 lead 2:02 into the game. Doug Weight sent a pass to Tkachuk, who tucked the puck between Roy's pads.

Noteworthy

The St. Louis penalty-killing unit, ranked 29th on the road, was perfect in four chances.

Christian Laflamme was leveled by a check from Peter Forsberg midway through the third period.

Injured Avalanche C Dean McAmmond participated in the morning skate. McAmmond (sore back) has yet to play this season.

Scott Parker was held out because of a bruised right hand.