Sakic’s Goal in Overtime Puts Avalanche in Finals

Wearing the black “16W” cap that represents his career-long mission, Ray Bourque playfully put teammate Joe Sakic in a headlock that signified gratitude as much as relief.

With one timely backhand, Sakic sent Bourque and the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup finals by scoring on a rebound 24 seconds into overtime Monday night to give the Avalanche a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues.

While the Avalanche are five years removed from a championship, Bourque will play for the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990. In his 22nd season, he has yet to win the title and his cap represents the number of playoff victories needed for the Cup.

“You go into every game with pressure, but it’s a lot of fun,” Bourque said. “After you’ve won the game, it’s a lot of relief and a lot of satisfaction. There was a lot of emotion at the end.”

Colorado, the NHL’s top team during the regular season, made it out of the Western Conference finals for the first time in three years. The Avalanche lost Game 7 of the finals to the Dallas Stars in 1999 and 2000 but finished off the Blues in five games.

“I didn’t think it would take this long to get back to the finals,” said forward Stephane Yelle, who was a rookie when Colorado won the Cup in 1996. “We had some great teams in the past. It took six years, but now we’re here.”

Sakic’s goal, his ninth of the playoffs, came while Blue defenseman Alexander Khavanov served a four-minute penalty for high-sticking, called with 2:16 to play in regulation. The hit left Avalanche forward Milan Hejduk bloodied, prompting the double-minor.

“I was just trying to protect myself,” Khavanov said. “It’s pretty upsetting, but right now there is nothing I can do. It was an unfortunate call. I didn’t mean to get my stick up.”

St. Louis Coach Joel Quenneville was equally frustrated.

“This stage of the game is not a good time to go there,” he said. “I had some issues. An overtime power play puts you at a disadvantage, and that turned out to be the deciding factor. We can argue it, and I don’t want to in this forum.”

The last three games of the series went into overtime.