0205280219
DETROIT FREE PRESS
020528
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press;Photo JULIAN H.
GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press
Colorado's Peter Forsberg pushes the Red Wings to the brink of elimination
with a goal 6:24 into overtime at Joe Louis Arena. Forsberg's shot was the
Avalanche's first in overtime. Game 6 -- and possible elimination for the
Wings -- is Wednesday night in Denver.
Thomas Holmstrom ducks as Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy raises his stick to
deflect a shot in the first period Monday night. Roy stopped 26 shots in Game
5.
MITCH ALBOM FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
AVALANCHE 2, WINGS 1 (OT). AVALANCHE LEADS SERIES, 3-2.
Copyright (c) 2002, Detroit Free Press
FOILED AGAIN
MITCH ALBOM: WINGS FACE ELIMINATION AS FORSBERG BEATS HASEK
He is the wildest of wild cards, the guy with a wand instead of a stick, the
one man on the ice who makes the entire arena shudder in anticipation. There
is Peter Forsberg with the puck and there is everyone else, it is simply that
way in this NHL springtime. And so, on Monday night, with more than six
minutes gone in a Game 5 overtime that had been as furious as a warehouse
shoot-out, Forsberg found the puck on his stick as he came in toward goalie
Dominik Hasek and you suddenly knew the one thing you hadn't known all night.
How it was going to end.
"You hold your breath when he gets it," Steve Yzerman admitted when it was all
over. "I didn't see the goal. But I saw his reaction. That was enough."
Forsbitten. The miracle man of this NHL season, a guy who took the whole
regular season off and now seems determined to squeeze a year's worth of
statistics into the playoffs, pushed the knife to within inches of the Detroit
heart Monday night, as the Avalanche won another game it might otherwise have
lost, by yet another 2-1 score.
Forsberg's goal may have been fortunate -- he took a pass meant for Chris
Drury, and some felt the play was offsides -- but the night followed the
template of this nerve-racking series. The Avs scored first. The Red Wings
caught up. The game went to overtime.
The road team won.
And now Detroit's Stanley Cup hopes are down to one night.
"I was actually a little nervous," said Forsberg, who also had an assist
Monday, giving him 27 points in 18 playoff games. "To be honest, I'm not
usually that good on breakaways."
Sorry, Peter, but at this point, that's a little like Michael Jordan saying,
"I can't shoot that well."
Forsbitten. The season of hope is now down to this: The 2002 Red Wings,
perhaps the greatest hockey roster ever assembled, are on the plank of the
pirate ship, blindfolded, walking forward.
They can talk about how well they played. They played well.
They can talk about all the good chances they had. They had them.
They can talk about how close they came. They came close.
And one more night like this, and they'll be talking about what a great series
they had all the way to the golf course.
It's back to Denver
"We did play well," Yzerman said in the quiet Red Wings locker room, "but
either way, we had to win Game 6 in Colorado Wednesday night. It's not like if
we won tonight we were going to go there and say, 'Oh, well, we can lose this
one.' "
Comforting words. And Yzerman's calm, upbeat remarks are what a captain should
be saying at a moment like this.
Then again, there weren't many other Red Wings in the locker room. And the
fans are having different conversations. Mostly they go like this:
"For crying out loud, when is (fill in the blank) gonna score?" Near misses?
Take your pick. Here was Brendan Shanahan with the best chance of the night,
all alone, with Patrick Roy dropping, the net coming open. He waited, the
bodies cleared, then, finally, the shot -- off the post!
Here was Brett Hull digging in to the boards, flipping out a centering pass --
no one there!
Here was Luc Robitaille on the doorstep, a slap -- too high!
Here was Sergei Fedorov, taking a great feed from Yzerman, right in front, and
slapping it -- too low, right into Roy!
Any one of those goes in, we're writing a different story. But once again, for
much of the game, the Wings had chances and came agonizingly close.
And the Avs had one great chance, and made it agonizing.
And that has been the difference in this series. It isn't much, but the series
isn't very far apart, either. Just enough to drive Detroit fans crazy. After
five games, no one will argue that the Wings are deeper. No one will argue
that the Wings frequently outplay the Avalanche.
But only one player can score at a time. And in a series this defensive,
you're going to get only a few goals. For Colorado, so far, it has been the
big stars when needed: Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Drury. For the Red Wings --
besides Yzerman's goal Monday and Fedorov's breakaway goal in Game 4 -- no one
who really gets paid to score has put a shot that mattered past Roy.
It's not much of a difference, that's true.
Just enough for a 3-2 series lead.
All those chances
"Will you guys be haunted by the missed chances tonight?" someone asked
Fedorov, referring not only to Sergei's missed shots but to a Detroit power
play late in the final period that could have salted this thing away.
"We can't think about all that now," Fedorov said. "We have to look ahead. We
have to look our teammates in the eye and say we have to go out and do our
best."
He paused.
"Better than our best."
Better than their best? Well. If that's what it takes. The Wings can certainly
win Game 6. They have won on the road before. They won in overtime in Colorado
just last week.
But this game comes with extra weight. The season ends if they lose. There is
no cushion. There is no backstop. Maybe that makes them play better. Maybe it
makes them press.
You pick your poison. The Wings have responded well to every form of adversity
until now. This may be a new one. But then, trouble is trouble, right?
Down the hall from the Red Wings' locker room, Forsberg was smiling. Sakic was
smiling. The Avs have a history of coming up big when they have to, but also a
history of exhaling when they shouldn't.
What was that, that Yzerman said? He holds his breath? That becomes the
official activity of Hockeytown for the next 36 hours.
You wanted to know how great this Red Wings team can be?
We're about to find out.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "Albom in
the Afternoon" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).
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