Sakic, Avalanche Race Past Devils

Joe Sakic accepted a no-look pass from Colorado Avalanche linemate Milan Hejduk and went from zero to unstoppable midway through a scoreless first period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday.

Sakic rocketed past helpless New Jersey Devil forward Sergei Nemchinov and, soon enough, was in the clear and free to snap a low shot between the legs of New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Game over.

The Devils never recovered from Sakic’s dash down the right wing 11:07 into the game. They were outskated and outsmarted during a 5-0 loss to the Avalanche before a pompom-waving sellout crowd of 18,007 at Pepsi Center.

New Jersey lost its first finals game on the road after winning five in a row en route to Cup championships last season over the Dallas Stars and in 1995 against the Detroit Red Wings.

Colorado took control of Game 1 of this battle of conference No. 1s and never let go, handing the Devils their worst loss of the postseason. The Avalanche was simply more aggressive.

“Joe could have put eggs in his pants,” New Jersey Coach Larry Robinson said of Sakic. “He didn’t get hit all night.”

As ever, the game hinged on one-on-one battles. Three were more one-sided than the others.

Colorado’s Patrick Roy was significantly better than Brodeur. Roy’s shutout was his 18th in postseason play, tops in league history. The victory also was his ninth consecutive in the finals, dating to Game 2 of the 1993 finals against the Kings while with the Montreal Canadiens.

The Avalanche’s Big Three--defensemen Rob Blake, Ray Bourque and Adam Foote--muzzled the Devils’ A-Line of Petr Sykora, Jason Arnott and Patrik Elias.

And Sakic torched the slow-moving Devils, recording a game-high six shots on net in addition to scoring two goals and adding an assist in 19 minutes 5 seconds of ice time.

It’s just the sort of offensive outburst the Avalanche needs while Peter Forsberg recovers from surgery May 10 to remove his spleen, mere hours after helping Colorado to a Game 7 victory over the Kings in the second round. Forsberg has skated at least once on his own in the last few days and there are whispers he might play if the series extends to six or seven games.

“Joe gave us a great game,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said. “He gave us some great goals. Since Day 1 of the regular season, Joe Sakic has been carrying this club offensively, and tonight was no different.”

Sakic escaped the Devils’ clutches again late in the second period, turning the game into a runaway by showing the skill with the puck that made him the leading candidate to win the league’s most-valuable-player award.

With the teams skating four-on-four, Sakic worked his magic. The Avalanche led, 2-0, after Chris Drury’s goal at 9:35, when Sakic took a crisp lead pass from Blake.

Sakic hesitated for a moment in the right faceoff circle as New Jersey defenseman Scott Stevens closed in on him. Instead of delivering a check on Sakic, Stevens chose to wait him out.

Bad move.

Sakic deked Stevens--one of the league’s most feared hitters, but not one of its great skaters--to the ice and skated into the slot as Sykora and Colorado’s Alex Tanguay fought for position in front of Brodeur.

Displaying remarkable patience while waiting for the traffic to build, Sakic unleashed a shot from the slot that beat Brodeur on the stick side for a 3-0 lead with 4:54 left in the second period.

“Obviously, he didn’t see it,” Sakic said.

Robinson saw Sakic’s playoff-leading 11th goal as further evidence of the Devils’ listlessness.

“A couple of our guys were within his reach,” he said. “But we did what we did most of the night. We stood around and watched.”

The third period was a mere formality, although the Avalanche did not let up in the slightest.

Blake, a former King, whistled a shot from the right circle past Brodeur for a power-play goal and a 4-0 lead 5:36 into the final period. Tanguay and Sakic assisted on Blake’s fifth goal of the playoffs.

Steven Reinprecht, also part of the Feb. 21 multi-player deal between the Kings and the Avalanche, scored Colorado’s fifth goal by slipping a wraparound between Brodeur’s legs with 2:24 remaining.

The Devils showed a bit of life in the dying minutes of the game, taking all manner of foolish penalties. Hartley, knowing Game 1 was in the bag and not wishing to turn the game into a genuine slugfest, left Blake on the bench for the final 10 minutes or so.

At game’s end, Blake was a bit sheepish about overreacting from the bench to a couple of New Jersey penalties.

“We kind of knew they wanted to set things up for the next game,” said Blake, who matched Sakic’s three-point game with a goal and two assists.

No matter how the Devils respond for Game 2, they will be forced to do so without right wing Randy McKay, who broke his left hand during a second-period collision with Bourque.