AVALANCHE BRIEFS
DETROIT — Patrick Roy saw Claude Lemieux getting pummeled by Darren McCarty, and believed he had little choice.
The Colorado goalie had to leave his crease, had to get involved in the fighting, if need be. McCarty later joked that it was “God’s will” that he was matched up with Lemieux in the skirmish, but Roy didn’t stop to think about divinity.
So he charged out toward center ice in the first period of Colorado’s 6-5 overtime loss to Detroit. He collided with Detroit winger Brendan Shanahan and went flying to the ice, then got into a fight with Detroit goalie Mike Vernon.
“I saw Shanahan coming and jumped in the air and fell down and lost my helmet,” Roy said. “I had my glove in my hand and couldn’t get rid of it.”
Roy said this wasn’t the first fight of his career, but that he wasn’t sure of the number.
“It was a rough game,” he said. “We were a bit tired from last night (a 4-0 win over Hartford), but we did our best.”
And in this corner … Marc Crawford even found himself getting into the act a little bit after the game when, according to arena workers, he encountered the Red Wings’ Aaron Ward in a hallway, gave him a little shove and got involved in a brief shouting match.
Home-ring advantage. Mike Keane ripped the Red Wings for “choosing” to retaliate in Joe Louis Arena, and not 10 days ago in Denver – when Colorado beat Detroit 4-2 in Lemieux’s first game of the season against the Red Wings.
Adam Foote echoed that sentiment. “I didn’t see them fight like that when they played in our barn,” the Avs’ defenseman said.
Escorting the Avs. Even after arriving from Hartford, Conn., in the middle of the night, the Avalanche had a multiple-car police escort, to prevent any trouble, for the half-hour drive from the Detroit Airport to a downtown hotel.
After that escorted ride, the Avs got to bed after 3 a.m. EST.
