Avalanche Rolls On In Ot
The battle-hardened Colorado Avalanche never doubted they could handle Detroit in overtime. It also helped that the Red Wings weren’t playing their best hockey.
Mike Keane scored with 2:29 left in overtime Sunday, giving the Avalanche a 3-2 victory over the Red Wings in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
Yet it was a game that will remembered more for Paul Coffey’s chance to be either hero or goat. Coffey scored two of Detroit’s goals, but also made a major blunder by knocking in one of Colorado’s.
“Luckily for us, Paul had his stick turned the wrong way,” Colorado coach Marc Crawford said.
Stephane Yelle and Adam Deadmarsh were credited with the other Avalanche goals, helping goaltender Patrick Roy snap a personal five-game losing streak against Detroit. Roy, winner of two Stanley Cup titles, is 28-7 in playoff overtime games, 4-2 this season.
Roy and Detroit’s Chris Osgood both were superb in goal. Roy had 29 saves, Osgood 27. In the overtime, Osgood had a crucial stop to rob Joe Sakic at 9:55 and another on Claude Lemieux at 17:08.
Moments later, however, Keane fired a shot from just inside the blue line that went through defenseman Mike Ramsey and between Osgood’s legs for the winner.
“Keane was bearing down,” Osgood said. “I went out because I knew he was going to shoot it. But I lost sight of it coming through Ramsey. I didn’t see it until the last second.”
Keane said the Avalanche, who had been resting up since Monday, had stressed shooting in practice all week. His mind was made up as soon as he took a pass from Mike Ricci.
“So I got a shot off and I don’t think Osgood was as sharp as he wanted to be,” Keane said. “I think I fooled him with a knuckle ball. It was just very good timing.”
The Avalanche were 3-2 in overtime through the first two rounds. Four of their six second-round games with Chicago went into overtime, including a triple-OT thriller in Game 4. Detroit is 1-2 in overtime games.
Game 2 will be played Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena. The best-of-seven series then moves to Denver for the next two.
Avalanche 3, Red Wings 2
Colorado 0 1 1 1 - 3
Detroit 1 0 1 0 - 2
First Period-1, Detroit, Coffey 3 (Yzerman, Fedorov), 6:00 (pp).
Second Period-2, Colorado, Yelle 1, :44 (sh).
Third Period-3, Colorado, Deadmarsh 3 (Young, Foote), 1:34. 4, Detroit, Coffey 4 (Larionov, Primeau), 5:33 (sh).
Overtime-5, Colorado, Keane 2 (Ricci, Gusarov), 17:31.
Shots on goal-Colorado 5-9-6-10-30. Detroit 8-5-12-6-31.Power-play opp.-Colorado 0 of 5; Detroit 1 of 6.Goalies-Colorado, Roy 9-4 (31 shots-29 saves). Detroit, Osgood 6-4 (30-27).A-19,957 (19,875).