Alex Tanguay didn’t call the bank. In hockey, you don’t have to.
This not being billiards, Tanguay’s bank shot off the skate of Dallas Stars defenseman Willie Mitchell and into the net, a shot that gave the Avalanche a 4-3 overtime victory Wednesday in Game 3 of its first-round playoff series, was a Picasso on ice.
In overtime, a puck can go in off a guy’s nose, backside or kneecap and it’s all art. So there was no razzing of Tanguay by his teammates, who mobbed him after being credited with the goal 1:09 into OT, capping another comeback win over the Stars, who now trail 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.
The Avs can advance to the second round with a win Friday at the Pepsi Center.
“You just want the win, and you don’t care how you get it, in the playoffs,” said Avs winger Andrew Brunette, who sent the game to OT by scoring with 57 seconds left in regulation. “Tonight, we battled to the last minute, and pulled it out. It was a tough one.”
With the puck in the left corner, Tanguay sent a crossing pass intended for linemate Ian Laperriere. The pass hit Mitchell’s skate instead and caromed past Stars goalie Marty Turco.
“We were very lucky to pull it out,” said Tanguay, who scored Colorado’s second goal. “I didn’t know how the puck went in at first, but just saw that it did. That’s all that matters. The series could easily be 2-1 on the other side, so we’re going to have to bring our best game in a couple days.”
This might have been a case of the Stars blowing it as much as the Avs’ comeback valor. Victory was only 1:45 away for the Stars, and Turco was finally starting to resemble the player so lauded in the regular season. He had stopped all 13 shots he’d seen in the period, but when teammate Brenden Morrow took a tripping penalty against Colorado defenseman Brett Clark, the Stars had to face another Avs power play. When Avs coach Joel Quenneville pulled goalie Jose Theodore for the extra skater with a little more than a minute left, the Avs had a 6-on-4 manpower advantage.
Brunette scored the equalizer when he tapped in a loose puck in front, after Joe Sakic’s centering pass hit a Dallas skate or two, keeping the puck alive.
“Obviously, we were just trying to go to the net and get the kind of goal that we did,” said Brunette, whose goal was his second of the series and fifth point overall. “We tried a backdoor pass and it hit somebody’s skate and just landed on my stick.”
Only five NHL teams averaged more penalty minutes per game than Dallas in the regular season, and the Avs again took advantage of poor discipline by the Stars. Colorado has scored five power-play goals in the series, on 19 attempts.
“To go up 3-0 against a team like that is good,” said Sakic, who had another big game with a goal and an assist and nearly won the game in OT with a backhander in the first minute. “Now we have to find a way to put it away. It was similar to Game 2, but we are just happy with the same result. It was a tough game today, both teams played real hard.”
The Stars vowed to play harder in Game 4.
“It’s going to be an effort unparalleled to anything this year,” Turco said. “We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can put our work boots on and understand the situation and the reality of it all.”
The odds of a Stars series victory aren’t good, though: Only two NHL teams – the 1975 New York Islanders and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs – have won a series after trailing 3-0.
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com
