For the Colorado Avalanche of 2002-03, it was death by penalty kill. The Avalanche’s one major weakness all season finally did it in Tuesday night, as poor penalty killing was the major factor in its 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the Pepsi Center.
Andrew Brunette’s backhand goal at 3:25 of overtime won it for the Wild, but it was Marian Gaborik’s power-play goal with 4:28 left in regulation that evened the score just 2:17 after Joe Sakic looked like he had done enough to send the Avs into the second round against the Vancouver Canucks. Instead, it will be the Wild advancing to play Vancouver.
“This is tough,” said Avs center Peter Forsberg, slumped in his locker afterward. “This is all ending a lot sooner than we thought it would. Our specialty teams weren’t good enough.”
This was a true heartbreaker for the Avs, who outplayed Minnesota most of the game and hit the post behind Wild goalie Manny Fernandez three times, along with being robbed by him on a handful of other great chances. But the Avs have only themselves and their season-long inept penalty-killing unit to blame for their season coming to a premature end. Not only was Gaborik’s tying goal on the power play, but so was Minnesota’s first goal, by Pascal Dupuis in the second period. That goal took away momentum the Avs generated when Forsberg scored only 1:22 before.
Gaborik’s goal came after Avalanche defenseman Rob Blake plowed hard into Wild forward Darby Hendrickson – whose penalty led to Sakic’s power-play goal right beforehand. With Hendrickson stood up at the blue line and his head down, Blake skated hard into him and referee Kerry Fraser whistled a charging penalty. Blake was disgusted by the call.
“Seventh game of the series, five minutes to go,” Blake said. “I mean, come on.”
Bad call or not, Blake, Forsberg and the rest of the Avs acknowledged they blew the series with poor performances in Games 5 and 6 – with Game 5 being the critical loss.
“That was the turning point of the series,” said Sakic, whose laser of a shot gave the Avs a short-lived, late third-period lead. Blake said, “We had them at home, down 3-1 in the series. You’ve got to finish them off and we didn’t. That leads to Game 6, which leads to Game 7, and then you get what we got tonight.”
On Dupuis’ goal, Adam Foote – playing with a broken bone in his right foot – was in the penalty box for boarding. The Avs’ PK unit could only stand in a four-square box and watch the Wild pound the puck past goalie Patrick Roy, who is now 6-7 in his career in seventh games. The Avalanche had won four consecutive seventh games at home, but tempted fate one too many times after blowing another 3-1 series lead.
“In all my years, I realize that you have to have the will,” Roy said. “You have to have a big desire. It’s been a roller-coaster ride all year. All year, we had trouble with the killer instinct. I believe in destiny, and I don’t think it was meant for us this year.”
Roy said he is “90 percent sure” of his decision about whether he’ll play again next season – and those close to him believe he’ll be back – but that he wants to take a little time off before making a final decision.
The Avs hit the post twice in the second period, including one by Blake from past the blue line that a screened Fernandez never saw. Sakic hit the post with a backhander in close, and Steve Reinprecht was foiled on one breakaway and one walk-in bid out of the corner. The Avs had the puck in the Wild zone roughly two-thirds of the second period, but bad luck and the skill of Fernandez kept it even entering the third period.
The Wild played a strong third period, outshooting the Avs 14-10, but Sakic’s goal appeared to knock out Minnesota’s will – until the Wild was given a reprieve on the power play. Other than Roy, nobody on the Avs touched the puck before Gaborik put a rebound home.
“Our specialty teams need to get better,” Foote said. “But they played well, and they have to get a lot of credit. I just think they never changed their game, and we did at times. It’s something that’s going to be tough to take.”
