This Cup’s for you, Ray.
Take a long drink of champagne from the Stanley Cup, Raymond Bourque. You certainly deserve it.
It happened for Bourque on Saturday night. It really did.
After 22 years of thirsting for one drink — just one — from the cherished silver chalice, Bourque got it. Finally. Bourque and the Colorado Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals at the Pepsi Center.
The Avs are the champions of the hockey world again, after a five-year drought of their own. The Avs became the first team since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens to overcome a 3-2 deficit in the Finals to win the Cup, which belonged to the Devils. But no more. Alex Tanguay, who wasn’t even born when Bourque first entered the NHL in 1979, played a terrific game for the Avs, scoring the first two Colorado goals and assisting on the third, by Joe Sakic.
That was more than enough for goalie Patrick Roy, who stopped 25 of 26 shots and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for the third time, as the playoffs’ most valuable player. But the man of honor when the game was over wasn’t the captain, Sakic, or Roy. It was the man with the gray beard, of course. When the Cup was handed to Sakic first by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Sakic eschewed tradition and handed it first to Bourque, who then did the only thing he’d never done on the ice in his career: He held up the Cup for the world to see.
“I couldn’t breathe the last 30 seconds, and it wasn’t because I was tired,” said Bourque, surrounded by his wife, three children — and the Cup — on a podium. “I was just trying to hold off the tears, the emotions. I was on the ice when we had a faceoff, and I had to stay focused. But lifting the Cup what a feeling.”
Not only did the Avs overcome the 3-2 lead to the defending champion Devils, including winning Game 6 on Thursday on enemy ice, but they did it without superstar center Peter Forsberg. The Avs were a true team in the final analysis, with no one player bigger than the sum of its parts.
“We knew that, to win a Stanley Cup, it would be a long and bumpy road,” said Avs coach Bob Hartley, who now has won a title at every level he has coached in his 14-season career. “You are going to have some tough times, but thanks to the guys in the dressing room, we were able to stay focused all the way. Those guys are outstanding. That is the best hockey team that I have ever coached. I thank them. They gave me my first Cup.”
Unlike the previous three Game 7s that ended their seasons, dating to 1998, the Avalanche played a good first period, looking ready to play from the first drop of the puck. The Avs outshot the Devils 10-9, and got the only goal, a pretty turnaround wrister from Tanguay at 7:58. The goal was largely the result of some hard work by linemate Dan Hinote, who beat Devils defenseman Scott Stevens to a loose puck along the boards and dumped it behind the Devils’ net. Tanguay, flying into the corner, picked it up from there. He circled from behind the net and roofed a shot off the water bottle behind Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.
“I knew Alex was behind me,” Hinote said. “He was yelling for the puck and made an unbelievable shot.”
The Devils put the Avs on the power play three consecutive times in the game, something coach Larry Robinson had constantly preached to avoid. The Devils killed off the first two, but the Avs added a goal at even strength early in the second period to up the lead to 2-0. Tanguay tallied his second goal, following a 2-on-1 break with Sakic.
Sakic took a long dump-out pass from Adam Foote at the red line and charged in on Brodeur with plenty of room to spare. Sakic’s wrist shot from the right circle was stopped, but the rebound came right on the stick of the onrushing Tanguay, who buried it at 4:57.
“This is unreal. I am a very pleased kid,” said Tanguay, 21. “I am very fortunate to have this opportunity. I stayed with (Roy) last year, and I grew up a Nordiques fan. I really didn’t like him, but I got to learn from the best. And winning it for Ray was such a big deal to us. We truly believed he deserved it.”
Then, on the third Devils penalty — a foolish roughing infraction by Sean O’Donnell against Shjon Podein away from the puck — Sakic wasted little time making it 3-0. Sakic burned a wrister over the left shoulder of Brodeur from the right circle.
“We were sharp right away, and having the home ice really meant a lot,” Sakic said. “It was so loud in here, it was unbelievable.”
After that, Roy would allow only a Petr Sykora power-play goal. Roy was superb again in winning his fourth Cup, but said Bourque getting his first will be what he remembers most.
“(Winning the Conn Smythe) isn’t as special, to be honest, as seeing Ray raising that Cup in the middle of the ice,” Roy said. “Just to see his eyes, how excited they were.” For Roy and the Avs, winning one for Ray was a labor of love.
