So there'll be a Game 7 after all. Let's just hope it's better than the first six games of this unfortunately nondescript Stanley Cup Final.

On Thursday, the Avalanche -- weathering an opening barrage by the Devils -- pushed the series to the absolute limit with a 4-0 win in Jersey. They did so behind the stellar puck-stopping of Patrick Roy, who added yet another page to his legend.

Aside from Roy's heroics -- and his stickhandling miscue in Game 4 -- the series has produced surprisingly little in the way of exciting hockey. There has been a lot of "dump-it-in, dump-it-out." We haven't had even one long journey into overtime night. In fact, each of the six games has been rather one-sided, regardless of the score on the jumbotron.

Off the ice, both teams have been properly respectful of one another. The most often-overheard phrase has been "We're two great hockey teams." That's nice, but it doesn't exactly get the blood boiling.

On Saturday, though, the series gets a shot at redemption. It gets one last chance to take our breath away. One more opportunity to make this series one that lives in our memories.

Will it deliver? I hope so.

I hope we get an overtime thriller. We haven't seen a Finals Game 7 reach overtime since 1954, when Detroit's Tony Leswick (you remember him, don't you?) netted the clincher against Montreal. Four years earlier, Red Wing Pete Babando scored a double-OT Game 7 Cup-winner against the Rangers. Those, of course, were the days when the hockey season ended in April.

It has been several years since our last Cup Finals Game 7. In 1994, the Rangers edged the Canucks, 4-3, on a warm June night in New York City. That series, though -- unlike this year's Final -- was electric. It featured an overtime, a penalty shot, an ejection of a superstar (Pavel Bure), some wild mood swings and the end of a 54-year curse.

What will happen on Saturday night in Denver? Who knows? Maybe a 40-year-old will get to hoist his first Cup. Whatever the outcome, let's just hope it's one to remember.

E.J. Hradek writes hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail ej.hradek@espnmag.com.