Avalanche's leaders pointing the way

Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 28, 2006 at midnight

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CENTENNIAL - One major factor differentiates the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars after three games in their Western Conference first-round series.

Colorado's stars have come up big; Dallas' haven't.

Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay, Andrew Brunette and Rob Blake have combined for 10 goals and 22 points for the Avalanche, which will take a 3-0 series lead into tonight's game at the Pepsi Center.

Dallas' Mike Modano, Jason Arnott, Sergei Zubov, Brenden Morrow and Jere Lehtinen have managed five goals and 14 points.

"When you look at our lineup, you expect those guys to get points, and they have," Avalanche left wing Antti Laaksonen said.

"Those guys are our key players," defenseman Patrice Brisebois said. "They are our bread and butter. We need those guys every game. So far, so good. They have scored some big goals and they play a lot of minutes.

"I always say your team is going to go as far as your leaders take you."

COMEBACK LUCK: Colorado's resilience has surfaced against Dallas, and newly acquired goalie Jose Theodore likes his new team's comeback ability.

It overcame a 2-0 deficit to earn a 5-2 victory in Game 1. In Games 2 and 3, the Avalanche scored late in the third period to tie the score and won in overtime.

"We're a bunch of guys who never give up and work really hard," Theodore said. "As a goalie, that's fun to see. There's extra pressure because when you are down one goal, you want to make sure you keep your team in the game and you don't want to give up that next one because they are going to find a way to score."

Blake said the Avalanche is doing what is needed in the playoffs.

"You know going into the playoffs you are going to have to score late and you are going to have to do things to tie things up," he said.

Avalanche coach Joe Quenneville admits luck has helped.

"I know we've been lucky both games with late goals, one short- handed and one on power play," he said. "Two games in a row being down a goal the whole third period, you'd rather have the lead and control the play, but our guys all year have been pretty determined and competitive and never let up. I would say we've been very fortunate at the very least."

VAANANEN SKATES: Injured Avalanche defenseman Ossi Vaananen skated for an hour. His recovery has surprised Quenneville.

Vaananen broke his right ankle during a game at Nashville on Feb. 2, and the original prognosis was he wouldn't be ready until next season.

"I didn't think it was even a possibility a while ago, knowing the severity of the injury, but talking to him, he feels good," Quenneville said. "So

we'll see how he progresses, but he certainly wasn't on the radar for a while. He started skating last week minimally for 10 to 15 minutes. (Thursday) he said he was out there for an hour."

SCORING CHANGE: John-Michael Liles was given the second assist on Brunette's goal at 19 minutes, 3 seconds of the third period in Wednesday's game. Tanguay has been credited with the first assist, which was originally awarded to Sakic.

NO ANSWER: The Stars tied for third in the NHL with 112 points and won three of four games against the Avalanche during the regular season.

So, on the heels of two overtime losses that easily could have been victories, the veteran Stars should have been able to come up with some explanations for their mistake-filled performance, right?

Think again.

"Our ability to make plays and do things we've done well all season, all of the sudden to not have that happen, I think everybody has got questions why that's happening and why that is," Modano said.

HIGH PRAISE: Stars coach Dave Tippett said Morrow, who produced two assists in Game 3 and leads Dallas with five points, has been the team's best player despite the fact it was a tripping penalty on Morrow that set up the Avalanche's tying power-play goal in the final minute of regulation Wednesday.

"Very rarely do you see a circumstance in the game where a player has such an impact on both sides of the game," Tippett said of Morrow's performance in Game 3. "Brenden had a huge impact in that game for us in a positive way. But just like everything else in human nature and life, we're all talking about the negatives (Thursday) and that's what he would draw on I'm sure."

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