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KO punch at Joe Louis Drury's OT winner puts Wings on the ropes
Posted: Friday May 05, 2000 12:34 AM
DETROIT (AP) -- A year ago, Colorado eliminated the Detroit Red Wings from the NHL playoffs in six games. It might not take the Avalanche that long this time. Chris Drury's goal at 10:21 of overtime lifted Colorado to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night and gave the Avs a commanding 3-1 lead over the Red Wings in their Western Conference semifinal series. "I thought we battled hard," Detroit forward Doug Brown said. "But, sometimes the puck goes the other way." In this case, it went the other way after Detroit defenseman Steve Duchesne got caught out of position. Duchesne followed Red Wings forward Steve Yzerman into the offensive zone. When the puck ended up on a Colorado stick, Duchesne couldn't get back, leaving Chris Chelios all alone to defend a three-man rush. It was no contest. Drury snapped his third goal of the playoffs past Detroit goalie Chris Osgood from the slot off nice passes from Peter Forsberg and Adam Deadmarsh.
Jon Klemm and Dave Andreychuk also scored for the Avs, who return home for Friday's Game 5 of the best-of-seven series. A sixth game, if needed, would be Sunday in Detroit. "I think we've got to look at the next game like a Game 7," Drury said. "We don't want to come back here. We want to finish them off." Vyacheslav Kozlov and Tomas Holmstrom scored for the Red Wings who have been eliminated from the playoffs the last three times they have fallen behind 2-0. Colorado won the opening two games of the series at home. Only once has Detroit coach Scotty Bowman guided a team through a 2-0 deficit to win a series. That was in 1992 when he coached Pittsburgh past Washington. "You just go in and think of the next game," Bowman said. "You can't think beyond the next game. It's not like we're getting whipped or there's a big edge either way. We're capable of winning the next game. That's how I look at it." The Avs didn't appear to miss star defenseman Ray Bourque, who sprained his left knee Monday night and sat out this game. Kozlov, on his 28th birthday, scored his second goal to give Detroit a 2-1 lead at 9:12 of the third period while Deadmarsh was off for high-sticking Pat Verbeek. But the Avs tied it 2-2 with 4:27 remaining when Osgood, trying to clear Andreychuk's shot, scooped the puck into the net. Avs goalie Patrick Roy made a spectacular save on Kozlov in the slot at 5:42 of overtime. Osgood stopped Forsberg from the left circle at 8:19 of the extra stanza. Detroit outshot the Avs 25-16 during the first three periods of the close-checking, heavy-hitting contest and 7-5 in overtime. "We played the type of game we wanted to play," Chelios said. "We had a 2-1 lead with less than five minutes to play. Then, we got running around a little bit, and it cost us." Klemm's first playoff goal gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 3:37 of the second, marking the third time in the series the Avs have scored first. Klemm, camped on the right side of the net, took a nice pass from Joe Sakic and snapped it between Osgood's legs. Holmstrom, by far the Red Wings' best player on this night, took a pass from Brown at the right side of the Colorado goal and slid the puck between Roy's pads for his third goal and a 1-1 tie at 9:47 of the second. The game was full of hard checks throughout. During one shift in the first period, Avs defenseman Adam Foote took on Darren McCarty and Martin Lapointe. Foote, who stepped up his game in the absence of Bourque, lost his headgear taking McCarty into the corner, but still came back to bump Lapointe away from Roy in front of the crease. Both Roy and Osgood came up with tough saves in the first period. The Red Wings came closest to a goal in the first 20 minutes when Brown flipped the puck past Roy at 7:36. It was waved off, however, because Holstrom was checked into the net, knocking it off one post. Holmstrom had a good chance near the left post with one minute left in the first, but couldn't get the puck past Roy. Each goalie came up with nice saves late in the second. Osgood robbed Sandis Ozolinsh, who got free in the right circle with 3:45 left in the period and Roy stopped Kozlov from the right circle with 1:28 left in the second. Osgood also handled a clear shot from the right circle by Forsberg with 51 seconds remaining in the period. Six of the 10 goals during the first three games came on power plays, but penalties weren't much of a factor in this game until late. Referees Kerry Fraser and Dave Jackson called two penalties, one on each team, in the first 2:19. There wasn't another penalty called until Chelios was sent off for high-sticking Forsberg at 2:04 of the third period. Thirty-nine seconds later, Forsberg was called for interference on Brendan Shanahan.
Then came Deadmarsh's double-minor for drawing blood on Verbeek.
Kozlov scored eight seconds later.
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