Detroit Loses Its Grip on Dynasty

It had been so long since the Red Wings felt the dull ache of watching their opponents celebrate a playoff triumph--nine series and nearly three years--they forgot how much it hurts.

The end of their two-year reign as Stanley Cup champions hit them hard. Soon, they will be able to appreciate what they have done. But on Tuesday, after Colorado capped its impressive comeback in the Western Conference semifinals with a 5-2 victory that eliminated the Red Wings in six games, they found defeat difficult to bear.

“It crashes in at once. All you feel is the heartache and the letdown and disappointment,” Detroit right wing Darren McCarty said after Colorado won its fourth consecutive game and clinched a berth in the conference finals against the Stars, starting Saturday at Dallas. “This is Hockeytown, and there’s no more hockey. And we feel responsible for letting people down.”

The Red Wings’ season ended before a loud but half-empty Joe Louis Arena in May instead of with a parade before millions in June because the Avalanche discovered reserves of strength and resilience it didn’t know it had after losing the first two games of the series at home.

“At that point, we were just trying to find ourselves,” said center Joe Sakic, whose first goal of the series--a short-handed effort at 8:14 of the second period Tuesday--gave Colorado a 4-0 lead. “Nobody believed in us after Game 2. A lot of us were doubting ourselves.”

Those losses inspired players to vow to maintain their discipline in face of Detroit’s taunts and teases. The Avalanche, which defeated the Red Wings in the 1996 West finals before winning the Cup, also capitalized on its depth and benefited from clutch goaltending, balanced scoring and surprises from role players. It was a formula the Red Wings knew well but couldn’t counter.

“We found a confidence maybe we didn’t have in the first two games,” said Adam Foote, the workhorse of Colorado’s defense. “Maybe in the first two games we were a little afraid, but then we started to believe in ourselves.”

Detroit suffered by losing center Igor Larionov for three games, goalie Chris Osgood for four games and Ulf Samuelsson for Tuesday’s game. But in its Cup run it took advantage of opponents’ injuries, such as Dallas’ loss of Joe Nieuwendyk in last season’s conference finals. Despite the four deadline-day trades that gave them a late-season boost and enabled them to sweep the Mighty Ducks in the first round, the Red Wings ran out of competent and healthy bodies and couldn’t prevail when the Avalanche made them play catch-up in the last three games.

“As the series went on, they got better and better,” Detroit captain Steve Yzerman said. “They played extremely well. Colorado outplayed us.”

Detroit had the better scoring chances in the first period Tuesday, but Patrick Roy--who extended his playoff record with his 107th victory--frustrated the Red Wings repeatedly. Colorado got the lone goal of the period when Peter Forsberg outmuscled Yzerman for the puck in the defensive zone and finished off a two-on-one with Valeri Kamensky by sliding the puck into the open left side of the net at 16:15. Goals by rookies Milan Hedjuk and Chris Drury and the short-handed goal by Sakic in a span of four minutes and two seconds early in the second period gave Colorado a 4-0 lead and deflated the crowd, but the Red Wings weren’t ready to give up.

A power-play goal at 17:24 by Nicklas Lidstrom--who may have been playing his last game in Detroit because he’s considering a move home to Sweden--and McCarty’s deflection of a Todd Gill shot 29 seconds later sent the Red Wings into the second intermission with renewed hope, but the Avalanche wasn’t about to let this victory slip away.

“Guys started to smell it,” Roy said. “We approached this game like a Game 7. For us, it was like a Game 7.”

Colorado put it beyond the Red Wings’ reach in the third period when Forsberg padded his playoff scoring lead with his sixth goal and 17th point.

“It was a tough game and we gave it everything we had,” said Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman, who seems to be leaning toward returning after saying he wants to coach in five decades and into the next century.

“‘We came back. A couple of plays here and there hurt us. But overall, when you lose four straight like we did, you can’t say the other team was lucky.”

The Red Wings weren’t deep enough up front, but Bowman believes they may need only a few adjustments to stay competitive. He added, “There are enough players that have won and I think the fire is still there.”

On Tuesday, however, that fire burned low.

“It’s just so sad to end,” said Brendan Shanahan, who had no goals in the series. “Obviously, no team is going to win the Cup 10 years in a row, but it was very difficult to skate off the ice tonight. After you win it, you say, ‘We’re the last one standing,’ and to watch other teams playing hockey two weeks from now is going to sting tremendously.”

BUFFALO: 3

BOSTON: 2

Dominik Hasek’s 23 saves helped the Sabres advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the second consecutive season. Page 5