Unlikely Hero Makes Game a Keane One for Avalanche

Almost lost in a crowd of world-class goal scorers, it was Mike Keane--a grinding, defensive-oriented winger--who scored the game-winning goal Sunday in the Colorado Avalanche’s 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in the opener of their Western Conference final series.

Surprising? Maybe.

Avalanche center Joe Sakic, who was stopped by Chris Osgood on a spectacular diving glove save at 9:55 of overtime, would have been a logical candidate to decide an intense game that had the 19,957 fans at Joe Louis Arena gasping and screaming. Detroit center Steve Yzerman would have been a good pick, but he was in the locker room getting treatment on what club officials called a pulled groin muscle, and he didn’t play after early in the second period.

There were many other possibilities, but the player exulting most joyfully at the end was Keane, the other guy in the Patrick Roy trade with Montreal, the guy who scored only 10 goals this season.

Keane may have seemed an unlikely hero, but in truth, it made perfect sense. When teams so closely matched meet in the playoffs, their talent can cancel each other out and diligence can make the difference. In that aspect of the game, Keane is every bit as stellar as his prolific teammates.

“He’s such a gritty performer that he gets himself into position to shoot a lot of times,” Avalanche Coach Marc Crawford said. “I really believe hard work pays off, and it paid off tonight for Mike and our team.”

In scoring his second goal this spring, Keane showed the instincts of a natural scorer. Seeing Detroit defenseman Mike Ramsey backing in toward the net, Keane called to linemate Mike Ricci to pass the puck and used Ramsey as a screen as he shot from about 40 feet out.

“We stressed shooting all week long,” Keane said. “I don’t think Osgood was as sharp as he wanted to be. I guess it fooled him, a knuckleball.”

Osgood didn’t see it until too late. “He came kind of up the middle and I knew he was going to shoot it,” Osgood said. “Then he pulled it toward Ramsey and I didn’t see it until it was hitting me and going through me.”

It was a strange game, one in which Red Wing defenseman Paul Coffey scored three times--twice for his team and once for Colorado.

Coffey gave Detroit the lead six minutes into the game, taking a long shot that snaked past teammate Dino Ciccarelli and Colorado defenseman Alexei Gusarov as they jostled in front of Roy. During a Detroit power play, he inadvertently helped the Avalanche pull even when he tipped Stephen Yelle’s centering attempt behind Osgood early in the second period.

“It just spun off the heel of my stick,” Coffey said.

Said Ramsey: “I’ve banged in a couple like that myself. You want to just go hide somewhere. It happens. . . . It doesn’t make a guy a bad guy.”

Colorado took the lead at 1:34, when a shot by Sakic bounced into the slot and off Adam Deadmarsh and Red Wing forward Bob Errey. Coffey tied the score at 2 during a Colorado power play, beating Roy to the glove side.

“I think both teams had enough chances to win the game,” said Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman. , who wouldn’t speculate on Yzerman’s status for Tuesday’s game. “It kind of went one way and then the other, so that’s what we kind of expected.”

Once overtime began, the Avalanche expected to win, regardless of its 1-3 record against Detroit this season and Roy’s personal 0-5 record against Detroit with Montreal and Colorado. Four of the Avalanche’s six games against Chicago in the quarterfinals were resolved in sudden-death, and Roy has a sparkling 27-8 record in overtime.

“Even if it felt hot in the building, I had no problem concentrating,” said Roy, whose 79th career playoff victory moved him into third place, behind Montreal’s Ken Dryden (80) and the New York Islanders’ Billy Smith (88). “I had one thing in my mind, to come here this afternoon and win this game. . . . This is the playoffs. It’s different than the season.”