It had been 278 minutes, 41 seconds, one time zone and two round-trip airplane rides since Chris Drury had scored his previous goal for the Colorado Avalanche.
In that time, the Avs had managed to score three goals against the Los Angeles Kings, spanning four games. But when the Avs forward scored early in the second period Monday night, his teammates would add two more goals before the period was over.
Three goals in 12 minutes, 24 seconds. No need to do the math. Game over. Series over. The Avalanche again prevailed in Game 7 against the Kings, winning 4-0 at the Pepsi Center.
Colorado moves on to a Western Conference semifinal matchup against the San Jose Sharks, with Game 1 on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Center. Drury’s sensational individual effort got everything started for the Avs in the second, with Alex Tanguay adding another goal 54 seconds later. Steve Reinprecht’s fourth goal of the series added more insurance Avs goalie Patrick Roy would not need. Roy’s victory was the 141st of his playoff career, and the shutout was his NHL record 21st.
“Chris Drury doesn’t know how to score nonhighlight goals,” said linemate Reinprecht, who led the Avs in scoring in the series. “He’s an amazing player. He just goes end to end, and he’s just a spark plug.”
For a team that had been waiting to exhale, Drury’s goal seemed to relax everyone in a white sweater. Previously, the Avs had been playing well, outshooting the Kings 12-3 in the first period. But Kings goalie Felix Potvin was outstanding.
But instead of drawing life from Potvin, the Kings wilted in the second. Playing without regulars Adam Deadmarsh and Philippe Boucher, and with first-line center Jason Allison slowed by a Game 6 check from Rob Blake, L.A. ran out of energy. Drury’s goal, his league-leading 23rd postseason score since 1999 and ninth game-winner, came after he got around Kings defenseman Jaroslav Modry near the blue line and came in alone on Potvin.
Drury flipped a shot off his forehand to the top left corner to get Colorado the all-important first goal (the team that scored first in the past two playoff series went on to win).
“We kind of loosened up after Chris scored,” Avs winger Milan Hejduk said. “He went through so many guys. We started to get pretty confident after that.”
Almost a minute later, at 6:02, Tanguay scored an easy rebound goal to make it 2-0. The goal came after Potvin stopped a shot by Hejduk, but let the puck carom to an unguarded left side of the net. Reinprecht’s goal, at 17:32, came two seconds after a power play expired. The former King settled a rebound of his own shot on his stick and easily beat Potvin in front.
“It’s great to have a big game in a Game 7,” Drury said. “Our line did some good things, and everybody else was real solid. It was our best game of the series, and it came at the right time. We didn’t want to start the summer early.”
Drury and Reinprecht got a boost with the return of Peter Forsberg to their line, after he missed Game 6 with an injury. Forsberg had an assist on Drury’s goal and played 15 minutes. Two other key figures were defensemen Greg de Vries and Adam Foote, who combined for a plus-7.
The two had been struggling, especially against Allison and Ziggy Palffy. But, while Allison and Palffy combined for eight shots, most were from the perimeter. But Allison did get one great scoring chance, on the power play early in the second period. Allison had the puck on his stick, after some great around-the-horn passing by the Kings, but his doorstop shot was kicked away by Roy. If that shot had gone in, the Kings would have had the first goal.
“Definitely, a huge save for us,” Avs coach Bob Hartley said. “That really helped give us some of the momentum we needed. It was a great effort by everyone, and it was a great series.”
