Tanguay scores game-tying goal with 10.2 seconds left
OTTAWA (AP) -- The Ottawa Senators haven't won an NHL-best 48 games this season by taking many shifts off.

They also didn't earn their franchise-record 49th Tuesday night when they did have a lapse, however.

Alex Tanguay took advantage of poor defense in front of the Senators net to score the tying goal with 10.2 seconds left in regulation, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-2 tie with Ottawa.

Tanguay took a pass from Peter Forsberg and beat goalie Patrick Lalime after Vaclav Varada gave Ottawa the lead with a power-play goal with less than a minute to go in regulation.

"It's discouraging for sure,'' said Senators defenseman Wade Redden, who was on the ice when Joe Sakic and Forsberg cycled the puck behind the Ottawa net to free up Tanguay. "It's unfortunate. You get to that point of the game and you want to put it away.''

Rob Blake also scored for Colorado, which has lost just once in four games.

Blake was almost the goat, though, after he took a roughing penalty late in the game and it allowed Ottawa to score a power-play goal with 53.6 seconds to go in the third.

"(The referees) almost ruined a nice game, but we came back,'' said Blake, who came to the defense of goalie Patrick Roy when Varada bumped him. "We battled back, we got a point. That was a great challenge for us.''

Martin Havlat had the Senators' other goal, also on the power play.

Lalime finished with 18 saves. Roy stopped 37 shots for the Avalanche.

Ottawa finished 2-for-6 with the man advantage; Colorado was 0-for-2.

The Senators are first in the NHL with 105 points and are unbeaten in four games. Ottawa has only lost twice to Colorado in 10 games since the 1996-97 season (6-2-2).

"Whenever you score in the last minute, you think you can get away with the two points, but Forsberg made an unbelievable play,'' said Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, who returned to the lineup after missing Ottawa's win over Florida on Saturday because of a hip flexor injury.

Alfredsson's assist on Havlat's second-period breakaway goal was the 51st of the season, breaking Alexei Yashin's franchise high of 50 set in 1998-99.

After fans in Atlanta and Sunrise, Fla., booed Canada's national anthem at each of the past two Senators road games, the Corel Centre crowd reacted with a loud and long ovation to "The Star Spangled Banner'' and even greater applause for "O Canada.''

Following a scoreless first period, it took Havlat just 1:38 of the second to score his 21st goal of the season during an Ottawa power play.

Late in the period, Riku Hahl forced Havlat into a turnover in the Senators' zone and sent Blake in alone. His quick shot beat Lalime to make it 1-1 heading into the third.

Colorado had already gone to overtime a franchise-record 26 times this season and appeared headed for another visit, when Zdeno Chara's long shot beat a screened Roy and Varada was ruled to have deflected the puck on the way in.

With Roy on the bench, however, the Avalanche controlled the puck in the Ottawa zone where Tanguay managed to tie it with his 24th goal.

"That's the way we are,'' Roy said. "We never give up. We could have shown a lot more frustration if we wanted.''

Senators center Mike Fisher left the game after the second period with a left shoulder injury and didn't return. He'll be re-evaluated Wednesday.

Game notes
Ottawa C Shaun Van Allen missed the game after undergoing surgery to remove a kidney stone. ... RW Rob Ray was a healthy scratch for the fifth time in eight games since the Senators acquired him. ... Colorado D Martin Skoula played in his team-high 280th consecutive game.