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Avs dodge Devilish hex

Third-period goals by Ray Bourque and Dan Hinote give Colorado a 3-1 victory at New Jersey, the franchise's first since 1993.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 1, 2001

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Nobody could possibly doubt now how much winning the Stanley Cup means to Ray Bourque.

[AP photo] Colorado goalie Patrick Roy raises his glove hand to celebrate as his team leads the Stanley Cup final series two games to one.

Bourque, whose search for his first Stanley Cup in 22 seasons is one of the most riveting stories in the final, scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Avalanche beat New Jersey 3-1 in Game 3 Thursday night to regain the series lead.

"It's been a while, since 1990, that I've scored one in the final, and I mentioned that to a couple of guys," said Bourque, who at 40 became the oldest player to score a goal in the Cup final. "It was a big one. I would say it's the biggest goal I've scored."

The Avs hadn't won in New Jersey since moving to Denver in 1995-96, going 0-4-2 in that span and 0-7-3 overall since their last win there in 1993 as Quebec's Nordiques.

Bourque, who has played more games in NHL history than anyone who hasn't won the Cup, couldn't have scripted this victory more dramatically unless he had scored the winner in overtime of Game 7.

On the same power play Avs goalie Patrick Roy nearly made one of the most monumental errors of an equally distinguished career, Bourque grabbed a faceoff in the Devils' end, skated from behind the right circle and into the slot and rammed a slap shot past Martin Brodeur for his 41st career playoff goal.

"Great players come up with great plays," teammate Shjon Podein said. "That was just an example. It was a great shot to beat Brodeur. It gave all of us confidence."

Brodeur said he never quite picked up the shot: "He kept moving with the crowd, and when he got out of the crowd he was stepping into the slap shot. He made a good shot, right at my shoulder. It went off my glove."

In an arena awash with red-and-white Devils jerseys, about a dozen fans in Boston Bruins' black and gold -- the colors Bourque wore for nearly 21 seasons -- celebrated as if Bourque had finally won the Cup. Two more victories -- and Colorado will have two more home games, if necessary -- and he will.

Bourque initially was credited with the second assist on Dan Hinote's goal at 6:28 of the third, making the clearing pass that led to a give-and-go between Hinote and Ville Niemenen. But the assist later was given to Chris Drury.

The Avalanche got just enough offense to protect Roy and, though not resorting to the neutral-zone trap, played a remarkably tight Devils-like defense. New Jersey finally got a goal from its first line, but has only three in three games.

Jason Arnott scored the first goal in the series by the A-Line, which had 22 goals in the playoffs before being shut out in the first two games. Arnott steered a wrister from the top of the left circle through Roy at 3:16 of the first period, the Devils' first power-play score in 10 chances in the final.

Bobby Holik, fed the puck from behind the net by Patrik Elias, made a cross-ice pass to Arnott for his eighth goal of the playoffs with 13 seconds left in Adam Foote's tripping penalty.

But Colorado, which never caught up in its 2-1 loss in Game 2 after falling behind, tied it halfway through the period as defenseman Martin Skoula put a perfectly placed shot from the slot over Brodeur's shoulder as three players jammed the crease.

A scoreless second period in which Colorado constantly held the puck in the Devils' end -- New Jersey had only three shots in the period -- nearly ended with a remarkable misplay by Roy.

With Colorado on the power play, Roy came far out of the crease to play the puck and became tangled with Elias along the boards. Roy, instantly aware he had wandered too far, got only halfway back to the net before Elias clanged a shot off the near post that missed by inches of being the go-ahead goal, with 17 seconds left in the period.

Roy was so mad at himself that he upended the net, water bottle flying, at the end of the period. That same power play, however, later resulted in Bourque's fourth goal in this season's playoffs.

RATINGS: ESPN's broadcast of the first two Stanley Cup final games fell 5 percent from last year.

CANUCKS: The team acquired goaltender Alexander Auld from the Panthers for a compensatory pick in 2001 and a third-round pick in 2002.

OILERS: The 38 owners are being asked to put up $10-million in cash to keep the club afloat beyond April 2002.

IHL: After a board of governors' meeting today, the league will cease operations, and the Orlando Solar Bears, winners of their first Turner Cup less than a week ago, will disband, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

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