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 Missing link Avs need offense from Sakic, Fleury
Posted: Wednesday May 26, 1999 10:53 AM
DENVER (AP) -- Where have you gone, Joe Sakic? And you, Theo Fleury? While the Colorado Avalanche were forging a five-game playoff winning streak, no one seemed to notice the performance of two of their most prolific scorers. But when the Avalanche bowed to the Dallas Stars 4-2 Monday night to square the Western Conference final series at one game apiece, the finger-pointing began. Fleury's assist Monday night was his first point in the last five playoff games, dating back to Game 3 of the Detroit series on May 11. Sakic has just one goal and one assist in the last eight playoff games. "We've had some great chances as a line," Fleury said Tuesday. "The puck is just not going in, for some reason. We're too good of players not to get on the scoreboard. We're doing all the right things. It's just a matter of time." Fleury said linemate Milan Hejduk, a rookie who scored his sixth goal of the playoffs Monday night, "is playing great." As the series shifts to Denver for Game 3 Wednesday, the Avalanche were eager for Sakic and Fleury to regain their scoring touch, as well as for the defense to cut down on the number of shots faced by their goalie, Patrick Roy. Dallas enjoyed a 45-19 advantage in shots on goal in Monday's game, including a 15-1 edge in the third period. Playing with desperation and a street-fighter mentality, the Stars delivered a message: This will be a long, tough playoff series. "They were a desperate team and they had to be," Fleury said, referring to the Stars' situation after losing Game 1 at home. "They threw everything at us in the third period." "The bottom line is, this is the semifinals," Dallas center Guy Carbonneau said. "You play each shift as if it were your last." Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Modano scored goals in the Stars' dominating third period. "We finally found some seams and cracks through the defense to get to the net," Modano said. "The second and third shots were finally there." Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said his team's more aggressive approach on Monday night was by design. "I think for us to play well, we have to press the pace,' he said. 'It doesn't matter who we're playing. We've played two pretty good hockey games. Unfortunately, we lost the first one. I thought the difference was we played with desperation, knowing our status. We took some chances and we didn't get hurt by it. "When you're playing a team as good and as skilled as Colorado, you can take one of two attitudes -- either stand back and wait and hope that's going to work out, or press the issue. Obviously, by the way we played, we've made the decision to press the issue." Instead of a suffocating defensive game, Modano felt as if he was turned loose on Monday night. That observation drew a chuckle from Hitchcock. "He might think he's been turned loose, but he's not," the coach said. "This is just a different series. There just is no play in the neutral zone. It's in one end or the other. The games are very similar to the way we play against Phoenix. "In the series against St. Louis, there was a tremendous amount of counter-attacking and neutral-zone play. In this series, there is none. So the feeling is that there's a lot of room because you're coming through that area between the two blue lines with a lot of speed." Asked to explain Colorado's somewhat lackluster play in Game 2, Hitchcock said, "They got what they wanted. They got the split in our building. Now, we have to come in here and do that, too." Avs forward Peter Forsberg said his team must play "much smarter, much harder. We have to be the ones that play desperate." Dallas lost forward Benoit Hogue for the remainder of the playoffs after he suffered torn knee ligaments in the first period. The Avalanche, meanwhile, were hopeful of getting back center Stephane Yelle, their best penalty-killer. Yelle has been sidelined since May 3 with a sprained left knee. "He's probably going to be a game-time decision," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said.
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