It’s the Avalanche, but Not by Landslide

The Colorado Avalanche advanced to the third round of the playoffs for the first time in 11 years, defeating the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3, Monday night on Sandis Ozolinsh’s goal 5:18 into the second overtime.

The Avalanche, in their first season in Denver after 16 years as the Quebec Nordiques, beat the Blackhawks in six games and will meet either St. Louis or Detroit in the Western Conference final.

“Our guys faced two great challenges and were able to handle them,” Avalanche Coach Marc Crawford said, referring to a six-game victory over Vancouver as well as the triumph over Chicago. “We’re quite confident we can handle the next one as well. We’ve got the momentum and we want to keep riding it.”

The Blackhawks last won a Stanley Cup in 1961, the NHL’s second-longest drought to Detroit’s 40 years. They lost four of their final five games after starting the postseason 5-0, including a victory in this series’ opener.

On the winner, Valeri Kamensky centered the puck to Ozolinsh, whose shot hit the crossbar. But Ozolinsh followed the puck and put the rebound behind goalie Ed Belfour.

“I didn’t score and I saw the puck laying there. I followed it all the way and just tried to jam it in,” said Ozolinsh.

It was the fourth overtime game of the series. After losing the first two, Colorado won the last two--including Game 4 in triple overtime--to reach a conference final for the third time in franchise history.

Joe Sakic scored his NHL playoff-high 13th goal at 1:29 of the third period and Kamensky scored his second goal of the game 5:33 later as Colorado took a 3-2 lead. But Chicago tied it with 59.2 seconds left in regulation, Joe Murphy scoring on Jeremy Roenick’s centering pass after the Blackhawks pulled Belfour for a sixth attacker.

Belfour made 41 saves and kept the Blackhawks alive in the first overtime, stopping Sakic at the end of a three-on-one break and Mike Ricci and Adam Deadmarsh on two-on-one breaks.

Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy made 31 saves and preserved the tie with 3:02 left in the first overtime by stopping Denis Savard from the crease. He also stopped Savard twice from close range in the second overtime.