An Old Hand Lifts Avalanche

Adam Foote, the Colorado Avalanche’s gritty defenseman, raced into the corner after a loose puck and absorbed a vicious hit from behind that put his team on a power play.

Joe Sakic, a crafty center, won a faceoff cleanly from New Jersey Devil counterpart John Madden with the Avalanche on the ensuing man-advantage seconds into the third period.

Ray Bourque, the feel-good story of the Stanley Cup finals, took possession of the puck after Sakic won the draw and sent a laser into the back of the net from just inside the blue line.

These are the plays that make Stanley Cup champions.

To be sure, the Avalanche must win twice more in order to defeat the Devils and win for Bourque his first Cup. But a comprehensive 3-1 victory Thursday in Game 3 gave Colorado a 2-1 series lead and restored home-ice advantage to the Avalanche.

Game 4 is Saturday at Continental Airlines Arena.

“I know we’re two games away, but we’re also one step closer,” said Bourque, whose power-play goal 31 seconds into the third period gave Colorado a 2-1 lead.

Grinding forward Dan Hinote capped a three-on-two break, giving the Avalanche an insurance goal almost six minutes later. Hinote was another of Colorado’s many standouts.

Sakic won 18 of 25 faceoffs, including the one from Madden that set up the go-ahead goal. Goaltender Patrick Roy stopped 21 shots. Swiping a chapter from the Devils’ playbook, the Avalanche clogged the neutral zone after Bourque’s first finals goal since May 15, 1990, while a member of the Boston Bruins.

“It was a huge goal,” Bourque said. “For me, I can say it was my biggest goal.”

To hear Colorado winger Milan Hejduk tell it, Bourque called his shot during the intermission between the second and third periods.

After New Jersey’s Jason Arnott went to the penalty box for boarding Foote with 58 seconds left in the second period, the Avalanche generated nothing with the man-advantage for the remainder of the period. New Jersey’s Patrik Elias almost took advantage of perhaps Roy’s only blunder of Game 3.

Wandering far from his net in the closing moments of the second, Roy coughed up the puck along the boards. Elias seized control and fired a quick shot that struck the outside of the right goal post.

“It was a play I shouldn’t have tried,” Roy said. “I didn’t think he could have scored from there. It would have hit my pad or gone wide and hit the post. But I was not pleased with myself.”

During the break between periods, the Avalanche players talked about who might get the go-ahead goal that would propel them to a victory.

Bourque stood up and said something like, “I’ve got it.” Asked about it at game’s end, Bourque said, “You make the call. What do you have to lose?”

Bourque’s humility notwithstanding, his comment underscored one significant difference between the Avalanche and the Devils. When Bourque, 40, speaks about coming through for his teammates, they listen.

There is no one of Bourque’s stature in the Devil dressing room, and that lack of poise, experience and leadership was in evidence in the final 20 minutes.

“There is always a problem when you don’t come to work and you don’t stick to the game plan,” New Jersey Coach Larry Robinson said. “You’re not going to win a lot of games when you only have eight or nine guys playing hard. We didn’t have enough guys competing tonight.”

A sellout crowd of 19,040 grew weary of the Devils’ stumble-and-bumble act in the attacking zone. After the Avalanche built a 3-1 third-period lead, some of the fans began to chant, “Shoot the puck, shoot the puck.”

Words to live by.

But the Devils did not take them to heart. Twenty-two shots on net simply aren’t enough to get the job done, particularly against a future Hall of Fame goaltender like Roy. He didn’t have to be spectacular in Game 3, but merely capable of making a routine save.

The Devils needed shots from all angles and distances. It also was mandatory to get traffic in front of Roy, blocking his view of perimeter shots and setting up New Jersey players for short-range rebound tries.

But it never happened.

Is it any wonder that the league’s best offensive team during the regular season has scored three goals in three finals games? The Devils led the pack with 295 goals, but suddenly can’t hit the back of the net.

Other than Arnott’s power-play goal 3:16 into the game--which ended a scoreless streak at nine with the man-advantage--the Devils hardly tested Roy. After defenseman Martin Skoula countered for the Avalanche, Petr Sykora had a chance to break the tie late in the second period, but Roy poke-checked the puck away from Sykora.

“Our leadership, our tenacity, our skills, our experience were certainly major factors and everyone showed up to work,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said.

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STANLEY CUP FINALS

GAME 4 SATURDAY

at New Jersey, 5 p.m., Ch. 7

Colorado leads series, 2-1