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DENVER (Ticker) -- Shjon Podein's goal with 6:39 left in the third period turned out to be the game-winner as the Colorado Avalanche held on for a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues to take a two games to none lead in the Western Conference finals. With Colorado in a defensive shell to protect a 2-1 lead, Podein took a pass from Chris Drury while skating through the right faceoff circle. He fended off defenseman Bryce Salvador's stick check, cut along the goal line and slid the puck under Roman Turek's blocker for his second playoff goal. Al MacInnis answered on the power play for St. Louis with 4:08 left, but Pierre Turgeon crippled the Blues' comeback chances by taking a slashing penalty with 98 seconds to play. With St. Louis pressing for the equalizer, Turgeon was cross-checked from behind at the side of the Colorado net. Moments later, he took an elbow to the face from Adam Foote that left him bloodied, but he was caught after delivering a two-handed whack to the back of the defenseman's right leg. "We had some momentum, obviously, there was a minute left and I turned around and they slashed me. It could have been called both ways and they didn't call it the other way," Turgeon said. The Blues pulled Turek for an extra attacker, but Drury scored into the empty net with eight seconds remaining to seal the Avalanche's sixth win in eight home playoff games. Patrick Roy made 28 saves and has allowed six goals in his last six games while stopping 160 of 166 shots. "Patrick has been tremendous the last five or six games," said Colorado captain Joe Sakic, whose assist gave him five points in the first two games of the series. "Playing like that gives the guys a lot of confidence with the puck. That allows us to stay focused and play the game." It was a frustrating night for Salvador, who also had Colorado's go-ahead goal deflect off his leg in the second period, and Turgeon, who was held without a shot and has scored just one goal in the last nine games. St. Louis, which has not led in the series, hosts Game Three on Wednesday night. "We're down two games to none and the bottom line is they are finding ways to win and finding ways to beat us. Now we have a critical Game Three and we'll try and get this win and try to at least get a lead for once," said Blues left wing Keith Tkachuk. "There were encouraging signs tonight, but the bottom line is we're still down two games to none." For the second straight game, the Avalanche opened the scoring on the power play in the first period. Four seconds after MacInnis was penalized for interference at 13:18, Ray Bourque took a pass from fellow defenseman Rob Blake and one-timed a shot from the top of the slot that beat Turek, caromed off the left goalpost and into the net. It was Bourque's 38th career playoff goal and first since Game Six of last year's conference finals. "I finally got one through and scored. It's been a while," he said. "You get frustrated sometimes when you don't get a lot of pucks on the net. A lot of my shots have been blocked or deflected. The first goal is huge and we got it on the 'PP,' and whenever we can do that it shows that they shouldn't take penalties." Defenseman Martin Skoula took a hooking penalty 6:58 into the second period, giving the Blues their second power play. MacInnis flipped a wrist shot from inside the blue line that Scott Mellanby tipped over Roy's left shoulder for his second playoff goal and a 1-1 tie. Foote broke the deadlock with 1:56 to go in the period. His blast from the left point caromed off Salvador, who was trying to block the shot, and got past Turek's stick side. "I was kind of in a bad position, I was kind of caught in no-man's land between the blue line and the goal line," Salvador said. "I just tried to get out of the way. Instead, the puck hit my shin pad and went in." Mellanby nearly tied it again in the final seconds of the period, but Roy gobbled up his deflection of Chris Pronger's wrister from the top of the slot. Minutes later, Roy got the blade of his stick on a centering pass, deflecting the puck away from Mellanby, who was poised to shoot at the left post. "I'm going to try to remain focused and keep focused and play one game at a time and not try and live in the past," said Roy, who recorded his 131st career playoff win. "I feel real good and I'm pleased the way things are going." The Blues had another chance to knot things when Scott Young came out from behind the net with just over nine minutes left in regulation. But his backhander hit the bottom of the left goalpost. Podein made it 3-1 less than three minutes later, scoring on Colorado's third shot of the period. But Blake was penalized for holding at 14:38 and MacInnis scored with 46 seconds left on the ensuing power play. Alexander Khavanov passed to MacInnis, whose one-time slap shot from the top of the left circle found space between Roy's pads. St. Louis' last chance came with 52 seconds remaining. After Turek was pulled, Tkachuk intercepted Roy's clearing attempt and swatted the puck off the side of the net. Avalanche center Stephane Yelle suffered a bruised right shoulder and sat out the third period. That forced Sakic, who also has a sore right shoulder, to take faceoffs. "I took the draws because Yelle got hurt and we ran out of guys on the bench," Sakic said. "It's getting better though." |
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