Nothing to It for Roy Again

Elimination games never seem to worry the Colorado Avalanche.

Patrick Roy is the reason.

Roy stopped 27 shots to make Peter Forsberg’s goal in the second period stand as the defending Stanley Cup champions beat the San Jose Sharks, 1-0, Wednesday night in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Roy extended his league record with his 22nd career playoff shutout and tied a record with his 11th Game 7 appearance. He is 6-5 in Game 7s, but has allowed a total of two goals to win the last four--three of which have been in the Avalanche’s last three series.

“I said before Game 6, if there is one player I’m not worried about for Game 7 it’s Patrick,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said. “He’s our energy, he’s the reason that every game we feel that we have a chance to win. He came up large tonight.”

Colorado reached the conference finals for the sixth time in seven years. The Avalanche will face the Detroit Red Wings in a matchup of the West’s top two teams during the regular season.

Game 1 is Saturday in Detroit.

San Jose won a division title for the first time this season but lost two consecutive games in failing to reach its first conference finals.

The Sharks scored one goal in the final two games to blow a 3-2 series lead for the second time in franchise history. San Jose also lost the final two games of the 1994 conference semifinals to Toronto.

“This team deserves better than this. We had a great season,” forward Teemu Selanne said. “I hope when we get a chance like this again, we remember how this loss felt.”

San Jose had a two-man advantage for the final 55 seconds after pulling goalie Evgeni Nabokov and a tripping penalty was called on Colorado’s Rob Blake.

Roy blocked a hard shot from the right circle by Mike Rathje, then stopped Selanne from the left side with nine seconds left. Joe Sakic won a faceoff in Colorado’s zone with four seconds left to seal it.

Forsberg scored with 2:10 left in the second on a give-and-go with Alex Tanguay.

Forsberg flipped a no-look pass to Tanguay just after crossing into the Sharks’ zone, and Tanguay quickly sent it back to him between the circles. Forsberg seemed to lose the puck just before he reached the crease, but flipped in a shot under Nabokov’s blocker.

It was Forsberg’s sixth goal of the series.