Special teams are the key yet again

Power play remains in high gear to help Avalanche go up 3-0

Pat Rooney, Special to the News

Published April 27, 2006 at midnight

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Displaying an unorthodox mix of efficiency and shortcomings, the Colorado Avalanche special- teams units played through every end of the spectrum Wednesday.

The Avalanche killed four of the Dallas Stars' five power-play chances and scored two power- play goals. Yet the Avalanche also surrendered a short-handed goal and Milan Hejduk committed a costly penalty during a penalty-kill situation that led to a five-on- three go-ahead goal for the Stars.

Not surprisingly, such mixed results led to overtime. And mostly because of a second consecutive game that included late special- teams heroics, this time delivered in the form of an Andrew Brunette tying goal on a power play with 56.4 seconds remaining in regulation, the Avalanche's performance again was just a little more special than the Stars.

So, depending on one's perspective, special teams saved the Avalanche or made its 4-3 overtime victory closer than necessary.

"The power play has to be the key," defenseman Rob Blake said. "You look around the league and see the penalties that are being called, you have to take advantage of the opportunities."

Things began well enough for the Avalanche's power-play units when Joe Sakic converted a rebound of a Brett Clark shot with a man advantage to give Colorado to a 1-0 lead early in the first period.

But the Avalanche failed to score on its next six power-play opportunities. The Avalanche's next power-play chance after Sakic's goal proved disastrous as Brenden Morrow and Stu Barnes created a two-on-one short-handed chance that ended with a Barnes goal that tied the score 1-1.

The Avalanche penalty killers, who turned in a strong effort during the two wins in Dallas, finally were burned at the end of the second period after Alex Tanguay and Hejduk were sent off for successive penalties that gave the Stars a two-man advantage.

Stars defenseman Sergei Zubov made the most of the break, blasting a shot from between the circles that put Dallas ahead 3-2 with 14.3 seconds remaining in the second period.

The Avalanche enjoyed plenty of chances to answer in the third, getting two quick power-play chances early in the period and two more late. Yet the Avalanche was unable to take advantage of its extra skaters until Brunette shoved home a loose puck in the waning moments of regulation.

"We missed a lot of opportunities, especially in the third, on the power play," Tanguay said. "In the playoffs, the games are often won on the power play and penalty kill. And our penalty kill has been great."

Indeed, the Avalanche has proven to be strong penalty killers during the series, holding the Stars to two power-play goals in 13 chances during the first two games in Dallas. The Stars were 1-for-5 in Game 3.

The Avalanche has scored a power-play goal in each game, and it is 5-for-19 in the series.

"Special teams are huge, and that's the new NHL, and I like it," forward Ian Laperriere said. "They said before the playoffs they were going to call everything, and

they're doing it. It's great. You get more goals, and in the last minute of the game, we had a power play to tie it up. You would have never seen that in the past."

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