Roy Is Unbeatable as the Avalanche’s Success Snowballs

DETROIT —  This was old hat for Patrick Roy, making 35 saves in recording a shutout and giving his team a commanding lead in a playoff series.

No matter that he wears different shades of blue, white and red than he wore for so many years with the Montreal Canadiens. He plays for a different team, the Colorado Avalanche, but the result Tuesday was the same.

From the flurries launched at him by the Detroit Red Wings during three first-period power plays through their last, fading gasps, Roy was perfect in a 3-0 victory before an unhappy sellout crowd of 19,983 at Joe Louis Arena. His second shutout this spring and seventh of his career--the most among active goalies--enabled the Avalanche to take a 2-0 series lead back to Denver, where Game 3 will be played Thursday.

The Red Wings were without center Steve Yzerman, who skated in the warmups but was too badly hampered by a pulled groin muscle, and they lost defenseman Paul Coffey to back spasms late in the second period. But their presence might not have made much difference.

“Patrick was great. He stopped a lot of their chances on the power play,” Colorado Coach Marc Crawford said. “Obviously, the game might have been a little different if they scored in the first period, but we weathered the storm and got better in the second period and took advantage of our chances.”

Roy’s 80th playoff victory tied him for second with Ken Dryden on the career list, behind the 88 games won by Billy Smith of the New York Islanders. “My defense played a superb game tonight. They were sharp in front of my net,” said Roy, who reduced his goals-against average this spring to 2.12. “[The Red Wings] tried to get in front of the net a lot and my defensemen were very good at this part of the game.”

Playoff success is old hat for Warren Rychel too. Yes, Rychel, the scrappy winger who had six goals and 13 points to lead all rookies during the Kings’ 1993 trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

Rychel, who had sat out the Avalanche’s previous four games, replaced injured winger Chris Simon on Tuesday and made the most of his opportunity. Playing in front of about 30 friends and relatives from Windsor, Canada, just across the river from Detroit, Rychel was moving toward the net when he took a pass from Stephen Yelle and flicked a 10-foot shot past Chris Osgood at 5:45 of the second period for his first goal of the playoffs.

Added to the power-play rebound scored by Joe Sakic at 11:36 of the first period, Rychel’s goal gave the Avalanche the option of falling back to protect its lead. Instead, Colorado continued to take well-calculated offensive chances, which paid off in defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh’s goal at 8:03 of the second period, on a play similar to Rychel’s goal.

“This feels a little bit like ‘93, but this team has way more talent and is younger, stronger and faster,” Rychel said. “We have such high skill level up front and I have to muck and grind. My job is to go out there and create havoc. They don’t pay me to score goals, but this one is a little bonus for me. I’m just glad I can give the team a lift.”

Said Crawford: “Warren came in and did exactly what you would want him to do. He had some great hits and he took one out of the air and put it in the net. He’s such a good guy in our dressing room as far as the intensity and emotion he brings to the game.”

The loss was visibly deflating to the Red Wings, who lost only three games at home this season but have lost four on home ice in the playoffs (one to Winnipeg and St. Louis and two to Colorado). After losing only 13 games during a record-setting 62-victory season, they have lost seven in the playoffs.

There’s no sign of the puck-control game that humbled their opponents all season, because they’re not getting space or time to pass it around. Red Wing Coach Scotty Bowman reunited his all-Russian line of Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Fedorov in hopes of creating an offensive spark, but they were rarely a threat. Bowman even gave Fedorov a few turns on defense after Coffey left the game, but to no avail.

“When those guys played us during the season, they had a lot of guys going [to the net]. Now, they’re very disciplined and they don’t force things and they wait for us to make a mistake,” Detroit defenseman Marc Bergevin said. “We have to do the same thing. If things aren’t happening, you can’t force it. If we have to win, 1-0, that’s what we must do. We were down, 3-2, to St. Louis and went there and played good defensive hockey [in a 4-2 victory]. We have to do that again.”