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 Roy up, Ranford down Avalanche bury Red Wings 6-2, jeopardize three-peat
Posted: Friday May 14, 1999 10:31 PM
DETROIT (AP) -- The Colorado Avalanche continued to make themselves at home on the road and, suddenly, Detroit's shot at a three-peat appears in some danger. Colorado got another strong game from goaltender Patrick Roy and Adam Deadmarsh scored twice as the Avs defeated the Red Wings 6-2 Thursday night to even their second-round series at two games each. The Avs played a trapping defense, which has made Detroit seem like a different team since taking a 4-0 win in Game 2. "Tonight was a lot easier for me, that's for sure," Roy said. "Our defense did a great job, even though they outshot us. I thought we were fantastic tonight. We played well in every part of the game." Roy, who made 44 saves in the third game, turned away 31 shots in Game 4 of the best-of-7 Western Conference series. "I don't think we've changed much from the first two games," Roy said. "We are just playing better hockey." Meanwhile, Detroit goaltender Bill Ranford failed to make it through the second period for the second straight game. Peter Forsberg had a goal and two assists. Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk and Valeri Kamensky also scored for Colorado. Vyacheslav Kozlov scored twice for the Red Wings. Ranford, starting his fourth straight game in place of the injured Chris Osgood, who is out with a sprained right knee, let three of the first 14 shots he faced get past him. He was replaced by Norm Maracle at 14:04 of the second with Detroit trailing 3-0. "I don't ever recall being pulled two games in a row," said Ranford, the 1990 NHL playoff MVP with Edmonton. "But, you can't worry about the goalie." In a 5-3 loss in Game 3, Ranford let five of the first 23 shots get past him and he was lifted 5:05 into the second period. "They told me it wasn't so much me," Ranford said. "They felt we were flat, and maybe that would give us a jump-start." But, it didn't. The Red Wings, trying to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup championship, had won 11 straight playoff games -- including the last five last year -- and were up 2-0 on Colorado before returning home. The series continues Sunday afternoon in Denver, where the Avs are 1-4 during these playoffs, compared with 5-0 on the road. Game 6 will be May 18 back at Joe Louis Arena. "All year, or at least since I've been here, we've played our best hockey on the road," Colorado forward Theoren Fleury said. "I think we do a better job of simplifying things on the road. We've got to do that at home." Drury's goal, his second of the playoffs, gave Colorado a 1-0 lead 1:28 into an otherwise quiet first period. The puck was bouncing in the crease and Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom was unable to clear it for the fallen Ranford. Deadmarsh and Hejduk scored in the second period, during which the Red Wings went 8:34 before getting their first shot on goal. The faithful in Joe Louis Arena were booing by the end of the period. Deadmarsh scored his fifth goal at 7:07, swooping in on the right side to tap in the rebound of Peter Forsberg's shot. Hejduk, on another assist by Forsberg, made it 3-0 with a power-play goal, his fourth, at 14:04 and Maracle replaced Ranford. "When you're that many goals behind, it seems like you're skating in quicksand," Detroit forward Brendan Shanahan said. Forsberg, who has points in nine of Colorado's 10 playoff games, scored his third goal at 8:21 of the third period. Kamensky made it 5-0 with his first goal with 8:32 left in the game. "It's not every day that you are going to be able to come into this building and score 11 goals in two games," Forsberg said. "We are doing all of the little things well right now, and the puck is going in for us." Kozlov scored his fifth on a power play with 5:20 remaining, Deadmarsh countered with 3:24 left and Kozlov scored again with 43 seconds to go.
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