Bounce Is Back for Kamensky

They couldn’t take another one away from Valeri Kamensky.

A period after having a possible goal waved off, Kamensky rebounded his own miss with 5:58 left for the decisive goal in Colorado’s 2-1 victory over Dallas in the opening game of the Western Conference finals Saturday night.

The Avalanche improved to 7-0 on the road this postseason and won their fifth consecutive game since being down 0-2 to Detroit in the second round. The Stars had won their first five playoff games in Reunion Arena.

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is Monday night in Dallas. The series moves to Denver for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Friday.

Colorado trailed 1-0 when Kamensky’s deflection of a shot by Claude Lemieux went under Dallas goaltender Ed Belfour, hit the post and bounced out. After a review, officials said the puck didn’t cross the goal line. But the Avalanche argued that it bounced off a pad inside the net.

“I saw the puck go straight through,” Kamensky said. “I think it was a goal.”

A few minutes later Peter Forsberg tied the score with his playoff-leading seventh goal. After Kamensky--who was sidelined two months with a broken arm before returning in Game 3 of the Detroit series--scored, goalie Patrick Roy made it hold up with superb play. Roy stopped seven shots in the final minutes, many of them the toughest he’d faced all night.

Roy had 30 saves and Belfour, statistically the best among the four remaining playoff goalies, stopped 26 shots. Both Colorado goals came on rebounds during scrambles in front.

The Stars, making their second consecutive appearance in the conference finals, didn’t score after Brett Hull’s goal 8:42 into the first period.

“We had turnovers, we missed the net on shots,” Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said. “They don’t need much of a gap to get it going offensively.”

Lemieux, booed often by the sellout crowd of 17,001 after he slammed his stick against the glass to quiet taunting fans, got an assist for the fourth consecutive game on Forsberg’s goal.