Again, Drury Is Money Guy

DETROIT —  Chris Drury and Patrick Roy did it again.

Drury scored the 10th playoff game-winning goal of his career at 2:17 of overtime Monday night as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, to even the Western Conference finals at a game apiece.

Steven Reinprecht got a rebound of Peter Forsberg’s shot and set up Drury to tie the best-of-seven series.

“I’m pretty lucky to be next to this guy,” said Drury, motioning to Forsberg. “I don’t think they were watching me, they were watching him.”

Forsberg had a goal and three assists for the Avalanche, and Roy made 30 saves to improve to 10-0 following a playoff loss in which Colorado allows at least five goals.

“It was great to bail Patty out for once because he’s always there for us,” Forsberg said.

Roy shrugged off his comeback ability.

“I see it more as a team stat,” he said.

It was the third playoff overtime goal for Drury in his career. He leads the Avalanche with four postseason game-winning goals against the Red Wings. Colorado improved to 21-1-1 this season when Drury scores.

Drury’s game-winners in the playoffs trail only Joe Sakic’s 14 in franchise history.

“Chris Drury is one of the best money players we can have on our team,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said.

Detroit has gotten a lot of production out of its gritty grinders, such as Darren McCarty, who scored three goals in Game 1, and Kirk Maltby, who ended a 31-game playoff goal-less streak, by tying the score at 2-2 in the second period.

But Red Wing stars such as Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov have struggled to make an impact in the series.

“Our big guys have got to get going,” Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said. “It’s a tight series and you know, there is not much room out there.”

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Denver.

“We played a bad game overall,” said Dominik Hasek, who made 22 saves for the Red Wings. “We made a lot of mistakes.... We didn’t play well enough to win.”

After the game, several players pushed and shoved each other, but no fights ensued.

Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the first, a 2-1 lead in the second and a 3-2 lead in the third. Each time, the Red Wings answered later in the period to tie it.

Not only couldn’t Roy deny a third Red Wing goal, he helped put it in the net.

On a power play, Nicklas Lidstrom’s slap shot from above the circles rebounded off the boards behind Roy. As Roy tried to kick the shot away, the puck bounced off his right blade and in with 6:35 to go.

Steve Yzerman was credited with the 100th assist of his career on the play while Roy just shook his head as the crowd taunted him with, “Pa-trick! Pa-trick!” chants.

Colorado’s Greg de Vries had put the Avalanche ahead, 3-2, at 5:26 of the final period on a wrist shot that got past Hasek’s glove.

Alex Tanguay and Forsberg gave the Avalanche leads in the first and second periods, but Detroit’s Boyd Devereaux and Maltby each got the Red Wings even.

Forsberg scored from just inside the left circle by redirecting Martin Skoula’s pass, from the top of the right circle, off the inside of his skate.

Lidstrom’s fluke goal came after a poor decision by Roy allowed the Red Wings to tie it 2-2 in the second period.

During a Colorado power play, Roy skated well beyond the circles to play the puck. Maltby took advantage of Roy being so far from his net by forcing the goalie to bite on a fake before getting beat.