The Avs enjoyed their Yip-pee- ki-yay, San Jose, moment in the third period of Game 6 on Saturday night by embracing each other and a 2-1 lead. It was the last hurrah of a special season.
After the thrills (two victories, one in overtime) and chills (133 minutes, 11 seconds across three games without a goal), and, too often, spills and too many penalty kills, the Avs finally were deep-sixed by the superior Sharks.
The Avs never suffered from Selachophobia — a fear of Sharks. But they did suffer from Shark shock, a lack of experience, lapses of physical and mental toughness against a bigger and better team, breakdowns on defense and in goal in three games (six, five and five goals), and “what we have here is failure to score.”
The Avalanche scored only 11 goals in six games — and slushed from late in the period of Game 4 to the second period of Game 6 without any goals.
Actually, the Avs scored only eight goals (and just seven if you count the winning goal in Game 1 off Rob Blake’s skate).
The Avs won the third game of the playoffs without scoring a goal — or even attempting a shot in overtime.
Dan Boyle’s lame, lamented attempt to clear the puck from his own end skidded past the near post into the Sharks’ net. The exhilarated Avs celebrated the Wrong- Way Goal and a 2-1 lead in the series.
But that would be it for the Avs. They had awakened a sleeping Shark.
The second game in San Jose, in reflection, was an aberration — 6-5 Sharks — for the Avs. They would never break out again and had nothing left in The Tank . . . or The Can arenas.
“How great are these kids! They’re something,” Avs president Pierre Lacroix said late Saturday night when there was a chance the series might return to San Jose for a final final. Lacroix returned from a life-threatening illness last offseason to rebuild, reshape and re-energize the Avs, who had missed the playoffs. He replaced the coaches, most of the front-office executives and many of the players — bringing in Joe Sacco & The Boyz2Avs Band. Sacco said at the end: “At the beginning of the season we tried to recreate the identity of the Avalanche, and I think we did that. The future is bright for us.”
Nothing much was expected in the regular season, then the postseason, but, as Sharks coach Todd McLellan said afterward: “It was a tough series. You can forget about one (seed) vs. eight. The Avs played us very hard. We had a theme of ‘overcome,’ and we kept doing it and were still doing in the third period.”
You’ve got to put rubber on the road and biscuits in the basket, and the Avs could do neither.
The Avalanche’s Pick Six was held in check — or in the locker room.
The Avs’ top scorers of the regular season were Paul Stastny, Matt Duchene, TJ Galiardi, Milan Hejduk, Brandon Yip and Peter Mueller.
Mueller sat out the entire series because of a concussion, and Hejduk sustained a concussion in a freak collision with a teammate in Game 3 (after he had scored his one goal earlier).
Duchene did have three assists, but he was scoreless in in six games. Galiardi too. Stastny had only one goal, and Yip scored his second — that Yip-pee-ki-yayer at point-blank range to give the Avs a one-goal edge 4:51 into the final period, and gave them hope. But the Sharks would overcome.
The whole series the Avalanche didn’t produce rush- hour traffic in front of the net, didn’t fire a constant barrage of shots.
Goalie Craig Anderson must have felt like the Dutch boy who had his finger in the dike. He had a glove in the dike all series, and the dam broke.
“I didn’t know much about Craig before the season started, but he played strong all season and kept us in this series,” Sacco said. “We got off to a great start in the series, but, truthfully, the injuries hurt us, and the momentum began to swing toward San Jose.”
The rink and the refereeing were slanted throughout the series. In the end, though, the Avs were offensive offensively. The Kiddie Korps kouldn’t konnect.
Guess who got the tying goal for the Sharks in the third period? Appropriately, Boyle did the deed, and a minute and a half later the Sharks went ahead for good . . . or bad. The last two, in the last minute, didn’t matter. Boyle had been the MVP for the Avs in one game, the MVP for the Sharks in the series.
But the new Avs got a taste of grilled Shark and the playoffs, and they brought the Stanley Cup playoffs back to Denver — where the post- season always belongs.
Despite the loss to the Sharks, the Avalanche must not suffer from Atychiphobia — the fear of failure.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
