 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
DENVER (Ticker) -- It took a decade, but it was worth the wait for Detroit Red Wings defenseman Fredrik Olausson. Olausson scored his first playoff goal in more than 10 years at 12:44 of overtime as the Red Wings reclaimed home-ice advantage in the Western Conference finals with a 2-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. Just two nights after Colorado used an overtime win to earn a split of the first two games in Detroit, the Red Wings returned the favor. Detroit had most of the scoring chances in the extra period and ended the game on its eighth shot. Olausson got a pass from Steve Yzerman at the Avalanche blue line, moved to the top of the slot and fired a slap shot that appeared to dip before beating goaltender Patrick Roy to the glove side. "It was a fairly quick counterattack on our part," said Olausson, who had just two goals in 47 regular-season games. "I don't know if it was Dom (Hasek) or Nick (Lidstrom) that passed it to Stevie. Coming off the bench, I jumped into the play. I shot and I don't think Patrick saw it when I shot it and it might have surprised him a little bit." The puck may have tipped off the shin of Colorado defenseman Martin Skoula, but Roy said only that he was screened on the play. It was the first postseason goal since Game One of the 1992 Smythe Division semifinals for Olausson, who was mobbed by teammates. "He's always been a big offensive player from the point," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. "That's what we needed against Colorado because they really shut you off down low." The top-seeded Red Wings ended up with a 42-21 advantage in shots but needed a fluke goal by ice-cold Luc Robitaille early in the third period to forge a 1-1 tie. "I think they were tired and we kept coming and coming," Hasek said. "We had four or five good chances in overtime and they had maybe one or two. I think we deserved to win." Hasek got no argument from Avalanche coach Bob Hartley, whose team fell to 6-3 in the postseason when leading after two periods. "I think it's pretty clear that we had no business to be in it," Hartley said. "(Roy) gave us every chance possible in the book to go home with a victory that we didn't deseve, but the Red Wings outplayed us and outworked us, plain and simple." Game Four is Saturday afternoon in Denver. Despite getting outshot, 21-11, Colorado took a 1-0 lead into the third period. But Detroit tied it at 5:20 on Robitaille's first goal in six games. Sergei Fedorov fired a shot from the left faceoff circle that Roy kicked out with his left pad. But it deflected off Avalanche center Steven Reinprecht, was batted down by Colorado defenseman Greg de Vries and trickled over the goal line. The goal was credited to Robitaille, although the puck may not have touched him. "We played real hard, we played real hard in the corners," Robitaille said. "We kept the puck in their zone, which is a big thing against a team like that." The turning point came several minutes earlier, when Colorado failed to convert a four-minute power play after Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom received penalties for interference and roughing. "That was a key moment in the game," Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. "We could have gotten another one there, it just didn't happen." The Avalanche appeared listless, getting outshot, 14-1, during a 16-minute stretch bridging the second and third periods. "They just played a lot better than we did tonight. They had the jump, we were flat," Sakic said. "We looked fresher," Bowman said. "I don't know for what reason. I think maybe because we played our players a little differently. Maybe we weren't leaning on certain players." Colorado scored first for the third straight game. The Red Wings failed to convert their first power play, but the Avalanche connected on theirs, grabbing the lead 26 seconds after Kris Draper was penalized for interference. With 4:06 to go in the opening period, Sakic let go a wrister from just inside the blue line that defenseman Rob Blake tipped over Hasek's right shoulder for his sixth playoff goal. "We actually were up, 1-0," de Vries said. "We have to get that next goal and we haven't been able to do it all series. And we got burned on it tonight." Detroit also did a much better job on Sakic and Forsberg, limiting them to two shots and two assists. In Game Two, Forsberg had a goal and three assists. "We didn't give much speed to Forsberg and Sakic," Hasek said. "They didn't have too many chances." |
|
||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
