NEW JERSEY VS. PITTSBURGH COLORADO VS. ST. LOUIS

Tuesday, May 22 Updated: May 24, 2:47 PM ET Bottom line: Avs back in the Stanley Cup finals By Terry Frei Special to ESPN.com DENVER -- They are without one of their marquee players, "Spleenless" Peter Forsberg. In part because the self-expressed, Cup-or-Bust expectations were so high, they have taken an extraordinary amount of criticism in the postseason -- because even they agree they haven't consistently been spectacularly impressive. Yet after a 2-1 overtime victory over St. Louis Monday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, the Colorado Avalanche are 12-4 in the playoffs and are headed back to the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in six seasons. And, more significantly for a team in danger of being written off as underachievers over the long haul, the trip to the championship round is the first since the Avalanche delivered Colorado its first major-league championship in 1996. More weird still, if the opponent in the 2001 Finals indeed turns out to be the New Jersey Devils, it will be a matchup of both Colorado NHL franchises -- the former Colorado Rockies, who moved to New Jersey in 1982, and the Avalanche. Let's dispense with something first. Although the Avalanche team internist, Dr. David Mellman, on Monday said there was a slight possibility Forsberg could play in the NHL Finals, that's just not going to happen. Yes, he could play, but the Soviet Union also could reunite tomorrow and Martians could land in the Coors Field bullpen (which immediately would improve the latest Rockies' relief pitching). And we probably should give the Avalanche credit for not announcing that the whole spleen thing was a joke, and not saying that in accordance with NHL injury disclosure practices, Forsberg was "day-to-day with a groin injury." After Monday night, when Joe Sakic's goal ended the Game 5 overtime and the series, a few things were coming into sharper focus about both the Blues and the Avalanche. And the final game provided a little more definition. This was a series of delicate balance, of three overtime games, of Roman Turek's inopportune periods of ineptitude, of the Avs trying to compensate for Forsberg's absence, and of the defensive superstars -- Rob Blake, Ray Bourque and Adam Foote -- outplaying, at least over five games, the equally transcendent Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis. Plus, Patrick Roy had every right to be gloating about his eloquent demonstration that he still can summon the playoff magic -- when his team needs him to. Brent Johnson was superlative in the St. Louis net in Game 5 and perhaps the series would have unfolded far differently if the 1997 Colorado draft choice would have been in the net the entire series. But the fact that Colorado couldn't sign Johnson and traded his rights to St. Louis was another indication of the Avalanche depth. Johnson holds no grudges after attending the Colorado training camp twice, and he didn't want to face a future behind Roy and other Colorado goaltending prospects. He knew Roy was the playoff master -- and was entrenched. The challenges for Roy now don't necessarily involve nightly larceny, but rising to the occasion. He has to provide the save or 10 that leave an opponent, whether the Blues or the Devils or the Penguins, suspecting between periods or between games that they have just blown a chance to take control. The challenges will be heightened if the Avs are meeting the Devils, who had a matchup edge even before Forsberg's injury and would benefit from trying to neutralize -- first and foremost -- the Sakic-centered line. So the first prediction, even before the matchup is set, is that the Avs must get production from the Chris Drury-Ville Nieminen-Dan Hinote second line to have any chance at all in a series against New Jersey. But that's getting ahead. In a quirky way, the St. Louis series underscored the Avalanche's strengths, both as an organization and as a team. Joel Quenneville, the one-time Avalanche assistant coach, is one of the top coaches in the league who has done a terrific job with the Blues. Yet his team went into brainlock at critical times against the Avalanche, and in Game 5, that meant that Chris Pronger -- who seemed to have made progress in his effort to eliminate stupid penalties -- couldn't stay out of the box, and Alexander Khavanov took a killing double-minor for high-sticking in the final stages of regulation. Khavanov high-sticked Milan Hejduk to the face. This comes from a strong believer in discretionary officiating, and Hejduk should have had to be bleeding enough to fill a swimming pool before a double-minor should have been called at that stage of the game -- and the series. (Automatic? Nothing in life is automatic, except the ATM, cars minus a clutch, and garage-door openers.) But that doesn't change this: Khavanov's was a "stupid" penalty under the circumstances, and it led to the overtime goal. Even on that goal, Blake again helped make the play, and the fact is that he has won over at least one observer who would have taken Pronger over him three months ago. (It's hard to type while holding up a "yes, it was me" hand.) Blake's trade to Colorado was all about his quest for "Pronger money," and he showed in the conference finals that he might be worth more. And anyone who understands the team concept will be nodding about this: Blake is an even better player with a superlative team, because he is smart enough to have settled into a comfortable on-ice niche and become even more compelling, in a different way, than he was with the Kings. His identity doesn't have to be defined by the spectacular hit. He doesn't make the spectacular play. He doesn't, because he doesn't have to. He is merely spectacularly solid, as when he pretty much made the play that led to Stephane Yelle's overtime goal in Game 4 and got the puck toward the net on Sakic's game-ending goal Monday. Those are snippets, and it's a compliment to say that he quietly has become the Avs' most adaptive skater in the postseason -- and maybe even Colorado's best skater. He is playing better, while not being as visible, because he doesn't have to play great hockey for his team to have a shot. Put in a situation in which he is a complementary skater, his greatness has been enhanced. And maybe that should be a lesson to all players out there with dollar signs, and little else, in their eyes. It's been a case of the Avalanche individually summoning superlative performances when needed. Maybe it's not as "impressive" as a series of blowout victories, but in its own way, it's as compelling. Terry Frei of The Denver Post is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His feedback email address is ChipHilton23@hotmail.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

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