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Colorado Avalanche Throwback: Patrick Roy Holds the Fort in Game 4 vs Blues

By Nadia Archuleta

ST. LOUIS - MAY 18: Patrick Roy #33 of the Colorado Avalanche gets caught out of the goal by Scott Mellanby #19 of the St. Louis Blues in Game four of Western Conference Finals during the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 18, 2001 at Savvis Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The Avalanche won 4-3. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images/NHLI)
ST. LOUIS - MAY 18: Patrick Roy #33 of the Colorado Avalanche gets caught out of the goal by Scott Mellanby #19 of the St. Louis Blues in Game four of Western Conference Finals during the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 18, 2001 at Savvis Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The Avalanche won 4-3. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images/NHLI) /
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For a Colorado Avalanche throwback, we look at how Patrick Roy kept his team in Game 4 of the 2001 Conference Finals against the St. Louis Blues.

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The Colorado Avalanche challenged for and won the Stanley Cup for the second time in 2001. As we know, that’s the pivotal year  that saw defenseman Ray Bourque finally win a Stanley Cup in the 22nd year of his Hall of Fame career.

That run was very different from the 1996 Cup run. It was fraught with issues. For instance, Patrick Roy came out of the gate inexplicably wobbly in the first series against the Vancouver Canucks. Joe Sakic played most of the playoffs with a nagging shoulder injury. In the final game of the second series, against the LA Kings, Peter Forsberg suffered an injury that required emergency surgery to remove his spleen. He missed the rest of the playoffs.

Though the Avalanche were the favored team over the St. Louis Blues, whom they faced in the third round, they certainly limped into the series.

The did take a commanding lead at home so that they went into St. Louis 2-0 on the series. However, the Blues won a heartbreaker of a game in their first in front of the home crowd.

Colorado gave up a one-goal lead late in the third period which saw the game go into overtime. Both goalies were perfect in the first overtime, sending the game into a second overtime. Avs forward Stephane Yelle whiffed on a shot, the Blues picked up the puck, and seconds later Scott Young put the game away for the Blues.

That was a tough pill to swallow for a Colorado team that still had a game to play in front of the hostile St. Louis crowd.

And it didn’t look like Game 4 was going to go well. The Colorado Avalanche scored three quick goals in the first period and then seemed to take some time off. St. Louis scored twice in the second. They came on like gangbusters in the third, obviously drawing on their success from Game 3. And they scored in the opening seconds.

They continued to drive the net, fueled by their screaming crowd.

And that’s when Patrick Roy showed why he would go on to win the Conn Smythe for playoff MVP. He took control of the game late in the third period. The play was back and forth, but only the Blues were getting any scoring chances. So, as the announcer said, Roy held down the fort.

These weren’t necessarily a spectacular series of saves. In fact, I can think of some cooler ones from Game 1 of the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals. (Content for next week perhaps.) However, it wasn’t the highlight reel save the Colorado Avalanche needed at that moment. They needed an engaged goalie willing and able to go the extra mile for his team.

Patrick Roy did just that.

The game went into overtime. Roy was only asked to make one more save, which he did. Stephane Yelle went on to redeem himself by scoring the game-winning goal early in the first overtime.

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The Colorado Avalanche put the series to rest in Game 5 and, of course, won the Stanley Cup in seven games against the New Jersey Devils.

Did you watch this series? Share your memories below.

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