2006/2007 NHL PLAYOFFS | STANLEY CUP FINALS
COLORADO AVALANCHE Vs. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
INSIDER:
The Colorado Avalanche return to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third straight season and will defend their reign as Stanley Cup Champions.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to do what no other team the last 2 years could do, and to do so they'll need everyone in tip top form to do so.
The series could go either way, but Colorado finally has the slight advantage due to the fact they've won the last 2 years. The series is expected to go 6-7 games.
INJURY LIST
PIT: Ryan Whitney | 1-2 Months
Michael Rozsival | 1-2 Months
COL: RW, Milan Hejduk | 1-2 Weeks
PLAYERS TO WATCH
PIT: Marc-Andre Fleury, Chris Higgins, Sidney Crosby, Mark Recchi, Evgeni Malkin
COL: David Aebischer, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake, Wojtek Wolski
GOALIES ON DECK
PIT: Marc-Andre Fleury
Chad Johnson
COL: David Aebischer
Peter Budaj
GAME ONE:
Brooks Orpik opens up the scoring at 14:43 to give the Pittsburgh Penguins which would hold up to the end of the period.
The second period seen no goals. We did however see a fight, a few penalties and a game misconduct which the score would stay 1-0 for the penguins.
Avalanche kicked off the scoring of the third period by Ian Laperriere only 25 seconds into the period to tie things up at 1.
The tie would last up until the 8:08 mark when Chris Higgins would score on the power-play (Nikolai Antropov's High Sticking) to give Pittsburgh the lead again. Sidney Crosby would score also on the power play (Dan Hinote's Delay Penalty) at the 19:20 mark of the third to look to secure the win for the penguins.
Peter Forsberg would score one at 19:59, but obviously would not be enough as the Penguins would take game one with a 3-2 Final.
Pittsburgh Leads Series 1-0
GAME TWO:
Colorado looked to come back into this series and they did so in a big way. Joe Sakic would kick off the the scoring at 1:45 on the power play (Marcel Hossa's Interference). Not long after that, Wojtek Wolski would snap one home on the (Brooks Orpik, Delay of Game) penalty to give the Avalanche an overwhelming early 2-0 lead.
Peter Forsberg would add one at 7:58, as the Colorado Avalache would head into the second period with a 3-0 Lead.
The second period would see Sidney Crosby score a short handed goal at 1:22 to give the Penguins a little bit of life, but still trailing by two. The score would end at the second period 3-1.
The third period would see the periods first goal at 6:19 when Wojtek Wolski would score his second goal of the game to give the Colorado Avalanche a 4-1 lead. The penguins would claw back at 12:34 as Kris Beech would snap one in to bring the score within two again.
Ryan Malone would score at 19:50 to bring the penguins within one, but little to late, as Colorado's able to split the series heading home for games three and four.
Colorado Avalanche tie up the Series 1-1
GAME THREE:
With the series being tied and in Colorado, The Avalanche will be looking to take advantage of this series. That being said, it took 6:58 to get things rolling, but Colorado would hit the board first as Ian Laperriere would be the one to do so at the 6:58 to make it 1-0.
The lead would hold up until 13:28, when Jordan Staal would get the penguins on the board and tie this one up. The tie would hold til the end of the period, as we'd enter the second with a 1-1 score.
14:28 would see Teemu Selanne capitalize on Denis Gauthier's penalty to give the Colorado the lead again. The score would play out the same as the buzzer would sound, as the score would stay 2-1 in favor of the Home Team.
The third would be quiet up to the 17:10 mark of the third, when Greg de Vries would score to give the Avalanche a 3-1 lead with only 2:50 left in the period. Adam Foote would secure the victory with an empty net goal as Colorado would take game 3 and lead the series now going into game 4.
Colorado Avalanche Lead Series 2-1
GAME FOUR:
The Avalanche would continue their moment, as they'd open up the scoring once again, with Rob Blake being the one to do so at 8:14 of the first period to give the Avalanche the 1-0 lead (Colorado has won the last two games when scoring the first goal)
Sidney Crosby would tie this game up at 14:32, which woud hold up at the end of the period.
We started the second period 1-1, but only for 50 seconds, as Ian Laperriere would strike for the Avalanche to give them the lead once again early into the second. It would only take Pittsburgh 23 seconds to tie things up, as Evgeni Malkin would keep the penguins tied up with the defending champions.
It would take 10mins more until we seen another goal, but John-Michael Liles would make it happen, giving the Colorado Avalanche the lead once again going into the third period with the score being 3-2.
The third period would see two more goals, both coming from the Home team. One being at 8:18 by Wojtek Wolski on the power play (Brooks Orpiks Roughing) and one more for good measure at 18:22 by Johnny Boychuk to give the Colorado Avalanche the sweep at home and a commanding 3 games to 1 lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-2 win.
Colorado Avalanche Lead Series 3-1
GAME FIVE:
Colorado is now 3-0 when scoring the first goal in this series and were ready to put that to the test as it would take 8:30 to do so, but Paul Stastny would be the man to get it done as Colorado would lead this game in Pittsburgh 1-0. The lead would hold up to the end of the period.
The second period would look bad for the Penguins as at the 5:32 and 5:48 mark, Teemu Selanne would get the back to back goals to give the Avalanche a commanding 3-0 lead not even half way through the second period.
Pittsburgh would finally show some life at 9:58 as Jakub Klepis would get Pittsburgh on the board and trailing by two as the second period buzzer ends with Colorado ahead 3-1.
The Penguins knew they couldn't waste much time getting back into this, though it did take them awhile, they'd score one at 7:45 to bring this one within a goal by Denis Gauthier getting the tally. The score now being 3-2 and looking as though the Away team would win this game and become the Stanley Cup Champions for the 3rd straight season, but with 1:10 left in the period, Denis Gauthier would score his second goal to tie this game up at 3 and keep the Penguins alive as this one would be heading to over time!
The over time would only last 53 seconds, as Michael Nylander would snap home the winning goal to crown the Colorado Avalanche for another season, as the Stanley Cup Champions!
COLORADO AVALANCHE - 2006/2007 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS
