Avalanche Ratify Dominance Roy’s Save Puts Colorado A Win Away From Sweep Over Panthers
Patrick Roy has been known as St. Patrick, after the guy who drove the snakes out of Ireland.
Now, he’s working on Miami Arena. Call him the exterminator.
Plenty of plastic rats flew in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals - but just as many left the building in the pockets of their disgruntled owners Saturday night.
St. Patrick is driving the Rat Pack right out of business.
Roy turned back 32 shots - including a Scott Mellanby offering on the doorstep at a critical juncture in the third period - as the Colorado Avalanche put a stranglehold on the finals with a 3-2 victory.
Avalanche captain Joe Sakic scored his first goal of the finals. Claude Lemieux and Mike Keane also scored for the Avalanche. The Panthers got first-period goals from Ray Sheppard and Rob Neidermayer - and then they got clamped in Colorado’s vise-like defense. They were rat-trapped.
The Avalanche have a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Monday night at Miami Arena. What are the Panthers’ chances?
Since the Stanley Cup finals went to a best-of-seven format in 1939, only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs have rebounded from a 3-0 deficit to win the Cup. The Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings.
Did the Red Wings have Roy?
“That’s why he’s such a great player,” Avalanche coach Marc Crawford said of Roy, “because he can lead, he can play and he can perform. Their one great chance in the third, and it’s a big save by Patrick. Especially point-blank, and a good shooter like Mellanby.”
With his stick jammed in traffic, Roy managed to flash his left pad and stop Mellanby on the doorstep. It happened 5 minutes into the third period. St. Patrick giveth the open net, and he taketh away.
“Just a reflex,” Roy said.
With their cadre of talented forwards, the Avalanche had struck for three goals in a span of 4 minutes in Game 1, a 3-1 Colorado victory.
In Game 2, the Avalanche used a 5-minute burst to score three goals and take a 4-1 lead at the end of the first period. The Avalanche led 7-1 after two periods. The game disintegrated in the third, when the Panthers took out their frustrations by engaging in fisticuffs - rare this deep into the playoffs.
Only 2:44 into the first period of Game 3, the Avalanche took a 1-0 lead. Was this it for the Panthers?
Was this scripted? The first Avalanche goal was scored by Lemieux, who sat out the first two games of the finals. He was serving a two-game suspension for checking Red Wings forward Kris Draper from behind - and breaking bones in Draper’s face.
So, here was Claude, after riding the bicycle for a week, camped out in front of the Florida net, taking an amazing center pass from Valeri Kamensky and ramming it past Vanbiesbrouck. The crowd at Miami Arena, riotous moments before, went morgue-quiet.
“We have a club with a lot of skill and at times it takes us a little time to warm up,” said Lemieux. “We felt if we stayed in a tight game in the first period in this building we’d be in good shape.”
The Avalanche outshot the Panthers 5-1 in the first 7:40.
Then the momentum shifted.
The Panthers outshot the Avalanche 16-1 in the last 12:20 of the period. Suddenly, the Panthers were playing their estimable defensive game. They didn’t allow the Avalanche to set up more than once. Down at the other end of the ice, the Panthers were coming into the Colorado zone with speed and ferociously going to the net
They got their first break at 7:40, when Colorado’s Adam Deadmarsh was whistled for holding. With 26 seconds remaining on the power play, Sheppard, one of the few Panthers who might be described as a scorer, threw a hard-angle shot by a crossed-up Roy. It was 1-1.
It took about 4 minutes to clean the thousands of plastic rats off the ice, and then the Panthers were back at it. Just 2:05 (game clock) after Sheppard’s goal, Roy was beaten again, this time on a hard charge at even strength. He stopped the initial shot by Mellanby, but the rebound trickled to Rob Niedermayer, who managed to get a hard-angle backhander past Roy. It was 2-1, Panthers.
The Avalanche burst came at the start of the second. Only 1:28 in, with Roy having skated off for an extra attacker on a delayed Florida penalty, Keane sent a wrist shot through a Mike Ricci screen and past Vanbiesbrouck. It was 2-2.
A minute and a half passed, and the Avalanche scored again. On his third breakaway of the series, Sakic finally converted. He took a perfect pass from Deadmarsh at full speed, flew over the blue line, curled in and shot behind himself, beating Vanbiesbrouck over the glove. It was 3-2.
“They had us on our heels in the first period,” Colorado coach Marc Crawford said. “Once we got going in the second period and started doing simple things effectively that changed the complexion of the second period.”
“Colorado’s defense in the second and third period was outstanding,” Florida coach Doug MacLean said.
Rockies 3, Panthers 2
Colorado 1 2 0 - 3
Florida 2 0 0 - 2
First period-1, Colorado, Lemieux 5 (Kamensky, Forsberg), 2:44. 2, Florida, Sheppard 8 (Straka, Jovanovski), 9:14 (pp). 3, Florida, Niedermayer 5 (Mellanby, Garpenlov), 11:19. Second period-4, Colorado, Keane 3 (Foote, Gusarov), 1:38. 5, Colorado, Sakic 18 (Deadmarsh, Leschyshyn), 3:00. Third period-None.
Shots on goal-Colorado 6-10-6-22. Florida 16-13-5-34.Power-play opp.-Colorado 0 of 0; Florida 0 of 1.Goalies-Colorado, Roy 15-6 (34 shots-32 saves). Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 12-9 (22-19).A-14,703 (14,703).
xxxx STANLEY CUP FINALS Monday’s game Colorado at Florida, 5 p.m. (ESPN) Colorado leads series 3-0