At about 9:05 Saturday night, there was still hope – optimism even. The Avalanche had a one-goal lead on Nashville, the Edmonton Oilers were into the second period tied with the Calgary Flames and visions of a Sunday night playoff showdown were creeping into everybody’s heads.
By 9:15, there was gloom. About 15 minutes later, there was final doom.
The Avs are not going to the playoffs for the first time in team history. Not because of anything that happened in Calgary, but because of what happened in the final 15 minutes of their own game with the Predators. Nashville’s 4-2 victory officially eliminated the Avs, after an incredible late-season run that had everybody starting to believe in miracles.
Now, for the toughest sentence of all for Avs fans: Their team was knocked out by Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya. Kariya’s goal midway through the third period – set up by Forsberg – was the game-winner.
For the first time since 1993-94, Joe Sakic will not have a game to play in mid-April. That was the last time the franchise missed the postseason. It wasn’t easy then for Sakic in Quebec, and it was no easier Saturday night.
“I’m pretty sure everybody’s not feeling too good about themselves right now,” Sakic said. “We fought hard and tried to hang in there. But we fell short.”
Avs fans saw it hundreds of times: A nice, quick little pass by Forsberg from the side of the net to an open teammate for a one-timer into the net. They saw it again in the third period, but this time it was a thing of horror, not beauty.
“Peter just saw Paul coming and it was a tap-in,” Sakic said. “We tried to get it to overtime to give ourselves a chance still, but came up short.”
In many ways, the loss typified what ultimately doomed the Avs this season. They had trouble holding third-period leads, especially in the first half, starting with opening night when they blew a late 2-0 lead to Dallas. They weren’t very good at home overall – their record is better on the road, in fact. For some reason, they seemed to always have dead stretches in home games, lacking in intensity and overall competence.
In this one, that happened for parts of the second and third periods. The Avs allowed 15 Nashville shots in the third, after giving up just 17 the first two. Up 2-1 after Andrew Brunette’s early second-period goal, the Avs missed on a couple of great opportunities to extend the lead, and Nashville’s David Legwand took advantage with a tying goal at 8:38. At 10:58, Kariya untied it, after Forsberg took a Scott Hartnell pass in the corner and spotted Kariya cutting down the middle. Two former Avs put the Avs out of the playoffs for good, and not even Forsberg seemed to feel good about that.
“It was tough to play today,” he said. “Sometimes, you don’t know what you have until you leave. We’ll see what happens if I continue to play in the future. But I’ve got nothing else to say but good words about this place.”
In a deserted dressing room, Avs veteran Ian Laperriere – who was robbed by Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun on a doorstep chance in the third – verged on teary emotion when discussing a great run that fell short.
“It’s not all positive, obviously. We didn’t make the playoffs. But there’s a lot of positives about this (run),” Laperriere said. “A lot of teams would have given up. Everybody picked up their game, but it was too late. It’s disappointing, don’t know what else to say.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
