Roy’s Arrival Turned Loose Avalanche Canadiens Castoff Finds Spark With Former Quebec Franchise

This has been a down-and-up season for Colorado Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy. He went from being a fixture with the Montreal Canadiens to a picture of frustration.

Now he’s a picture of contentment, having taken the Avalanche to the Western Conference final with Monday night’s 4-3 double-overtime victory over the Blackhawks.

Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg predicts Roy will take Colorado one step further - to a series win over the Detroit Red Wings and the Stanley Cup championship series.

“He’s the best goalie left,” Hartsburg said.

Five months ago, though, Roy was visibly upset after new Canadiens coach Mario Tremblay hung him out to dry in an 11-1 rout by the Red Wings at the Forum. Tremblay didn’t pull Roy until he had given up nine goals.

Roy vowed never to play for the Canadiens again.

Montreal complied, sending him to Colorado in a five-player deal Dec. 6.

Roy was the Canadiens’ best player, winner of two Conn Smythe trophies in leading Montreal to Stanley Cup titles in 1986 and 1993.

In Denver, he supplied an identity to a franchise transplanted from Quebec.

Roy was asked to explain the significance of rising to the top in a season in which he also hit a new low.

He could have dumped on the Canadiens, who were eliminated in the first round by the New York Rangers. But Roy smiled instead and said, “It has been fun.”

He shook his head and smiled some more, soaking in his good fortune.

“Everybody said I was traded to win the first two series of the playoffs,” Roy said. “This franchise had not won a series in nine years.

“I was very relieved after we won the first series and did not feel the pressure against Chicago. The further you go, the further it is fun. And now the fun really begins - we are in the final four.”

Roy played all 437 minutes in the six-game series against the Blackhawks, allowing 2.3 goals a game despite facing seven overtime periods. He had a stingy .919 save percentage.

The series was tense, what with four overtime games, but Roy and Chicago forward Jeremy Roenick managed to have fun.

The friendly feud began when Roenick beat Roy on a breakaway in Game 3, then said Roy probably was looking for his jockstrap after the play.

When reporters relayed Roenick’s comment, Roy said, “I can’t really hear what Jeremy says because I’ve got my two Stanley Cup rings plugging up my ears.”

Roenick broke up Roy’s shutout in Colorado’s 4-1 victory in Game 5 and chided Roy by acting as if he were cleaning out his ears. They sparred verbally before and during games.

But this was no Bulls-Knicks feud; the blood is not bad between Roy and Roenick. They exchanged pleasantries after Monday’s game as the teams shook hands.

“When the great players jaw, you guys love it,” Roenick said to reporters. “So we kept it going. But I have tremendous respect for their club and Patrick Roy.”

Chicago rookie of the year candidate Eric Daze scored 30 goals this season and three against Calgary in the opening round. But Roy, his boyhood hero as a child in Montreal, shut him out.

“If Patrick sees the puck,” Daze said, “there’s no way you are going to score against him. He is such a great goalie.”

Roy doesn’t give up cheap goals, and Chicago’s ploy to distract him with heavy traffic in front of the net was not successful often enough.

“And if I give up a goal,” Roy said, “it does not affect my play. I read where Orel Hershiser says he focuses on the next pitch after both strikeout and home run pitches. I try to do the same.”