Avs' Fantastic Finish Ends with 9th Title
By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News - April 7, 2003
No longer is the Colorado Avalanche a pursuer of history.
The Avalanche's yearlong quest to make its way into the NHL record book ended in stunning and successful fashion late Sunday afternoon, about an hour after completing regular-season play with a 5-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center.
Thanks to the Los Angeles Kings, who Wednesday appeared to have dashed the Avalanche's chances of winning the Northwest Division title with a come-from-behind 5-3 triumph, Colorado sewed up its league-record ninth consecutive division championship and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
The injury-ravaged Kings were watched by the Avalanche players on television as Los Angeles scored two third-period goals in Vancouver to shock the Canucks 2-0 and knock them off their lofty perch.
The unexpected turn of events enabled the Avalanche, which trailed the Canucks by as many as 13 points, to finish first by one point (105-104).
"We put pressure on them, and sometimes in this league things happen," Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy said. "We needed a good break, and L.A. played well and gave us that break.
"The guys were pretty happy. We talked all year about trying to finish first in our division."
The Avalanche opens postseason play at home Thursday night against the sixth-seeded Minnesota Wild, which will make its inaugural playoff appearance. The Avalanche went 2-0-2-1 against the Wild this season and has gone 11-1-2-1 overall against the third-year team.
Not only that, Avalanche center Peter Forsberg beat out Vancouver's Markus Naslund for the Art Ross Trophy as the league scoring champion (106 points to 104), and right wing Milan Hejduk won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy by registering a league-high 50 goals, two more than Naslund.
Forsberg could very well capture the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, too.
The winner will be announced at the league's televised awards show in June, but Forsberg wasn't thinking about that Sunday.
"I was a little shocked to see Vancouver lose. I think everybody was," said Forsberg, who collected two assists and added an empty-net goal with 54.3 seconds to play.
"It's kind of amazing. We were playing well, but Vancouver kept on winning.
"Now we have nine straight divisional titles, and that's pretty good. It was our goal at the beginning of the year, and it took a long, long time to get it. We are happy and proud."
The Avalanche went 14-0-2-1 in its final 17 home games and 32-11-4-8 after Tony Granato replaced Bob Hartley as head coach Dec. 18.
Colorado's 105 points are the third-highest total in franchise history.
"We did what we had to do," Granato said. "If you look back at the last 50 games and look at what we were able to do to end up with 105 points, that is one heck of a season."
Roy, who made 26 saves against the Blues, finished the year on a 22-4-4 roll. He termed Vancouver's collapse "a bit of a surprise," but said it would be a mistake to take Minnesota lightly. The Wild, coached by Roy's first coach in Montreal, Jacques Lemaire, finished third in the division with 95 points, a 22-point improvement from last year.
"We had help and we played well at the same time," Roy said. "I can't remember how many points we were behind Vancouver, and then we started playing well. We were winning games and it put us in the position that we are (now)."
"Jacques Lemaire is a great coach. They have a great system and they are going to play hard. It's the fun time for them in the playoffs and they are going to want to do well. I'm not playing against the coach. I'm playing against the team. I'm just going to try to remain focused like I have been the last two or three months."
The Avalanche broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first period but didn't put the game away until Hejduk scored his 50th goal with 5 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the game.
"It's a special number and I'm really happy that it went in," said Hejduk, whose goal with 10 seconds left in overtime Friday secured a 4-3 victory against Anaheim and kept the Avalanche's title hopes alive.
"I started to get a little more nervous (as the game wore on) because the puck wasn't going in. If you have a lot of scoring chances and the puck doesn't go in, it kind of goes through your mind."
Forsberg set up Hejduk's goal with a soccer-style kick from the corner. Alex Tanguay got his stick on the puck - and picked up an assist - before it went to Hejduk in the slot for a shot past Blues goalie Brent Johnson.
The Tanguay-Forsberg-Hejduk line was the league's hottest in the second half of the season and was pivotal in the Avalanche's stretch drive.
Forsberg is the first Swedish-born player to win the league scoring title, and the first player since Chicago's Stan Mikita in 1964-65 to do it without scoring 30 goals.
Forsberg finished with 29 goals and a league-leading 77 assists.
Forsberg and Naslund are from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, and they have been friends since childhood.
"I said it would be great if we could finish first and second, but the main thing was to win the game," Forsberg said.
"It was good to see Milan get his 50th, and we'll go from here. We have a tough road in front of us, but we've been playing better lately and we should have some confidence."
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