Final Stop

Roy outplays Brodeur, Avalanche wins. Brodeur upstages Roy, Devils win.

Newspaper headlines from coast to coast have changed game by game in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, a series highlighted by a fixation on the goaltenders for each team.

The performances of Colorado’s Patrick Roy and New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur have been discussed and dissected at the end of each of the first six games.

And why not?

No other position in hockey invites and even encourages such scrutiny. Tonight, for plenty of reasons, that will again be the case as Roy and the Avalanche face off against Brodeur and the Devils in the deciding Game 7 at the Pepsi Center.

After all, it’s only the third Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals in the last 30 years and the first since the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks went the distance in 1994, with the Rangers winning a thrilling finale, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden.

If the Avalanche-Devil series follows form, tonight’s winner will have received the better goaltending. Which goaltender will emerge victorious is anyone’s guess. Each has had his moments of glory and despair thus far.

Goaltenders’ performances are entwined in so many ways. But in this case, that extends to their lives off the ice as well. It’s nearly impossible to speak or write of one without mentioning the other.

Roy and Brodeur are French-Canadians, Roy growing up in Quebec City and Brodeur in Montreal.

Roy played for the Montreal Canadiens from the 1984-85 season until he was traded to the Avalanche during the 1995-96 season. Brodeur’s father, Denis, was the Canadiens’ team photographer for many years. Brodeur, a first-round pick of the Devils in 1990, idolized Roy as a youngster.

Roy, 35, is the winningest goaltender in NHL history. He has more playoff victories (136), shutouts (19) and games played (218) than any other goalie. A victory tonight would give him his fourth Stanley Cup championship--two with the Avalanche, two with the Canadiens.

Brodeur, 29, is seeking his third Stanley Cup championship in the last seven seasons. He and the Devils won last season and in 1995. No longer is there a poster of Roy hanging in his bedroom.

Roy is the leading candidate to start in goal for Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, although there are rumblings that some team executives would prefer to go with Brodeur.

They are so alike and yet so different.

Roy is often viewed as a bit of a brooder, sullen at times. Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said earlier in the series that you must look into Roy’s eyes to, as he put it, “learn all his secrets.”

Brodeur wears his emotions proudly, for all to see. He sounded incredulous when asked several days ago how he could possibly seem so relaxed before a game.

“It’s just a game,” he said. “I really enjoy the situation we’re in right now. It is important to stay relaxed. There is so much pressure coming from everywhere. If I start putting pressure on myself, it’s only going to get harder to stay positive and as happy as I can.”

As much as anything else, Brodeur’s happy-go-lucky approach to hockey has endeared him to the Quebecois. Roy has slipped a bit from their good graces because of a family dispute that brought the police to his home earlier this season. No charges were filed.

Roy also had a run-in with a longtime reporter for a Montreal newspaper.

“He has changed so much, he used to have us over to his house, but not anymore,” another French-speaking reporter covering the Finals said.

However, Roy has been gracious and accommodating to the hordes of reporters covering the Finals. He stepped forward without hesitation to acknowledge his gaffe with the puck that led to the tying goal and an eventual loss in Game 4.

“You never like to make a mistake like that, no doubt about it,” he said. “But everybody makes mistakes.”

Roy was not at his best again in Game 5, suffering a 4-1 defeat that put the Avalanche on the brink of elimination. But he rebounded to record his fourth shutout of the playoffs Thursday in Game 6.

“There was no doubt in my mind that we were capable of bouncing back in this game,” he said after making 24 saves in a 4-0 victory.

“I think we should get a lot of confidence from this game. Everybody is playing well. I thought we might have been a little nervous in the first period, but we were outstanding in the second and third periods.”

Brodeur, who also has four playoff shutouts in 2001, looked like a sieve against the onrushing Avalanche in a 5-0 loss in Game 1. After rebounding smartly in the next four games, he was again off his form in Game 6 and the Devils were forced to board a plane Friday to fly to Denver for the deciding Game 7 tonight.

To the winning goaltender will perhaps go the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player of the postseason. The man who best survives the pressure of leading his team and the onslaught of the opposition will no doubt have a Game 7 to remember.

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CREASE POLICE

Comparing Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur in this season’s playoffs:

Roy Brodeur

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15-7 Record 15-9 1.73 GAA 2.03 4 Shutouts 4 .933 Save % .899

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THE SERIES

Game 1--Colorado 5, N.J. 0

Game 2--N.J. 2, Colorado 1

Game 3--Colorado 3, N.J. 1

Game 4--N.J. 3, Colorado 2

Game 5--N.J. 4, Colorado 1

Game 6--Colorado 4, N.J. 0

Game 7--Tonight, 5

at Colorado, Channel 7

Finals Finales

Game 7 highlights in Stanley Cup Finals history:

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1994 at NEW YORK RANGERS 3, VANCOUVER CANUCKS 2 Mark Messier scores game winner in second period 1987 at EDMONTON OILERS 3, PHILADELPHIA FLYERS 1 Oilers score in each period 1971 MONTREAL CANADIENS 3, at CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS 2 Henri Richard scores game winner in third period 1965 at MONTREAL CANADIENS 4, CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS 0 Gump Worsley gets the shutout 1964 at TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS 4, DETROIT RED WINGS 0 Maple Leafs’ third consecutive Cup championship 1955 at DETROIT RED WINGS 3, MONTREAL CANADIENS 1 Alex Delvecchio scores twice for Red Wings 1954 at DETROIT RED WINGS 2, MONTREAL CANADIENS 1 (OT) Last Game 7 decided in overtime 1950 at DETROIT RED WINGS 4, NEW YORK RANGERS 3 (2 OT) First Game 7 decided in overtime 1945 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS 2, at DETROIT RED WINGS 1 Babe Pratt scores go-ahead goal in third period 1942 at TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS 3, DETROIT RED WINGS 1 Maple Leafs rally with three goals in third period

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Source: NHL