Colorado Avalanche: Down to the Wire

Clutch. Clutch is the one word you can use to describe what happened within the walls of Pepsi Center on Friday night.

The Colorado Avalanche, riding the momentum from a goal by Joe Sakic with 5.9 seconds remaining to tie the game, beat the Edmonton Oilers in a shootout, in one of the most classic hockey games you will see.

Colorado opened the scoring in the first period on back to back goals from Andrew Brunette and Milan Hejduk, both of whom have been lighting up the scoreboard of late. Brunette, finishing the game with two goals and one assist, now has 20 points in his last 19 games. Hejduk, who's play seems to have completely been reborn since the Avs acquired Peter Forsberg, scored as well. He now has seven points in his last four games. But the offensive juggernaut that is the Colorado Avalanche was led again by Peter Forsberg's three assists for the second game in a row. That gives him six assists in two games, and nine points in seven games played with the Avalanche this season. He is turning out to be more than worth what Avalanche General Manager Francois Giguere paid for him. And he is just getting started.

After going up 2-0, Jose Theodore gave up two quick goals to the Oilers, but not before making an "ESPN's Top 10 Plays" save on Dustin Penner. That save, in fact, was the number one play of the day.

Play went back and fourth through much of the rest of the game, with some physical points and a rematch of Ian Laperriere and Steve Staios squaring off for what proved to be a short lived fight, (with 'Lappy' coming out on top). The teams traded goals, and Edmonton buckled down in the third period and appeared to be on their way to victory and that much closer to a playoff spot.

But Joe Sakic had different plans.

After ringing a backhander off the post just a few minutes earlier, Sakic took a heads-up pass from Forsberg behind the net and put the puck top-shelf to tie the game at four goals apiece with hardly less than six seconds to go in the game. The Avalanche had their goalie pulled, and the extra attacker paid off.

Overtime proved nothing, and in the shootout, Wojtek Wolski, Sakic, and Hejduk all scored for Colorado, securing the win. Edmonton finished the shootout with one goal.

It was an electric atmosphere inside Pepsi Center, and you could feel it through your TV. Sakic himself said in a post-game interview that it was "as loud as Pepsi Center has ever been" when he scored the tying goal. The fans must be feeling the playoff hockey, and after a year hiatus from 'the Big Dance', Avalanche fans are again ready to shake those white poms and cheer for their team.

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