Avalanche More Like a Blizzard

Their fans created a blizzard of swirling white pompons, but all the Colorado Avalanche needed to win the opening game of the Stanley Cup finals Tuesday was one brief flurry of goals.

Shaking off their early anxiety, the Avalanche scored three times in a span of 3:49 in the second period and rallied for a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers before a sellout crowd of 16,061 at McNichols Arena.

The Panthers, who had won the first game in each of their three Eastern Conference series, controlled the game for the first 30 minutes and took the lead when Tom Fitzgerald finished a slick passing play with Bill Lindsay and bested Patrick Roy at 6:51 of the first period.

But once the Avalanche players regained their poise, they beat the Panthers at their own game. Colorado won the battles along the boards, created traffic in front of the net to distract Florida goalie John Vanbiesbrouck and benefited from a solid team defensive effort.

“Nerves came into it. As much as we’d like to say we’re all perfect, there’s a human element in the game and I’m sure the guys were a little nervous,” Avalanche Coach Marc Crawford said of his team’s tentative start. “The [five-day] layoff had something to do with it, and Florida played a very good first period. They came out very strong and that’s the type of hockey people have come to expect from them.”

Said Colorado defenseman Uwe Krupp, who capped the scoring at 14:21 of the second period with a dash deep into Florida’s zone: “We said as soon as we found out Florida was going to be our opponent that we have to work as hard as they do. Tonight we worked hard and things went our way. There was not anything scientific about this.”

Scientifically speaking, the mile-high altitude of Denver might have contributed to the Panthers’ woes. Then again, it may have merely been the Avalanche bringing them back down to earth and the knowledge that the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the Cup 45 of 57 times, or 78.9%.

“Maybe we were tired,” Panther captain Brian Skrudland said. “Guys were coming withing three, four strides of people and pulling up and that just hasn’t been the case for us. If we had to go through the Zamboni door and go eight miles to finish a check, we did it. That wasn’t the case tonight.”

That the Avalanche staged its comeback without a point from playoff scoring leader Joe Sakic, who was blanked for only the second time in 18 playoff games, without a power-play goal, and without feisty winger Claude Lemieux, who began serving his two-game suspension for an illegal check on Detroit’s Kris Draper in the Western Conference final, made the victory all the more impressive.

“In the second period our execution was better,” Crawford said. “In the third period they battled and gave us some scares. Our team is going to have to be better, and I think we can be.”

They were good enough to tie the game at 10:32 of the second period, when Scott Young launched a wrist shot past a screened Vanbiesbrouck for his third playoff goal.

Mike Ricci, unofficially assuming Lemieux’s role of resident pest, put the Avalanche ahead for good at 12:21. Barging into the crease after the puck, which even Florida Coach Doug MacLean conceded was legal, Ricci banged it in after it skidded off the end boards and under Vanbiesbrouck’s stick.

“It’s crunch time. The team has carried me for long enough, now I have to hold up my end of the bargain,” Ricci said after scoring his fourth goal in the last three games. “I just tried to go to the net.”

Krupp was heading for the net on his goal, sometimes a risky proposition for a defenseman but a winning gamble in this case.

“Tonight was our night,” Krupp said, “but we have to concentrate and do the same things and hopefully we’ll end up on top again.”

MacLean said he planned to change little before Game 2, which will be played Thursday at Denver.

“Except for five or six minutes in the game it was a pretty solid performance by our guys and we’ll just go from there,” he said. “I think they’re a real good team, but we’re a good team, too.”

Avalanche players know their work is far from done.

“Everybody was thinking we could not take them lightly,” Roy said. “It was important to show them what kind of game we were going to play. Also, we said [Monday] in our team meeting, they had won every first game they were involved in so far, so it was important for us to see them behind us and win this game and go to Florida up, 2-0, and see how they react.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Stanley Cup Finals

COLORADO AVALANCHE vs. FLORIDA PANTHERS

Game 1--Colorado 3, Florida 1

Game 2--Thursday at Colorado, 5 p.m.

Game 3--Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m.

Game 4--Monday at Florida, 5 p.m.

*Game 5--June 13 at Colorado, 5 p.m.

*Game 6--June 15 at Florida, 5 p.m.

*Game 7--June 17 at Colorado, 5 p.m.

* if necessary

All Times Pacific