Chris Drury has 25 career playoff goals.

His 10 game winners -- with No. 10 coming in overtime against the Red Wings in Game 2 Monday night -- are the most in the NHL over the past four seasons.

In other words, Drury is a sage pick in the winning-goal pool in the press box. If you've got the first pick, and it isn't out of a hat.

Given the success of his team -- the Avalanche have made the Western Conference finals each year, and won the Stanley Cup last year -- and the young forward's general productivity during his career, it isn't a shocking statistical anomaly. Still, with all the superstars both on his team and the other NHL powers of the past few years, it would seem to be an upset -- not a Belarus-over-Sweden upset, but a surprise nonetheless.

Drury would be a good pick in Game 3 tonight, even before they drop the puck, now that he seems locked onto a dangerous line with Peter Forsberg and Steve Reinprecht.

"I played with Peter last year and a little bit the year before," Drury said Monday night. "We seem to play together well. Steve had such a great year and we kind of all fit in."

There are some people in sports -- or, for that matter, other walks of life -- who have "it." And you say that, not even completely being able to define "it." Superstars have that unmistakable charisma, even if it's quietly manifested. That isn't quite what Drury has.

In his case, it's a quiet, even unassuming air surrounding a core of confidence. He isn't yet an Avalanche leader in the overt sense, except for his on-the-ice play, but it's appropriate he wore an "A" part of the season and probably will end up wearing one full-time soon. Only six of the Avs suiting up nightly in the playoffs are younger than Drury, though.

His reticence to say or do anything flashy, or even publicly seek to lead, isn't as much a reflection of his personality as it is his preference for caution and a low-profile. His friends tease him about his bland public persona, but most of them also understand it.

Some if it undoubtedly is a remnant of, and was influenced by, the early exposure to the national spotlight when he had just turned 13 in the summer of 1989.

You have our permission to skip the next few paragraphs if this story (and the video tape highlights) has become familiar, but the chunky little catcher also pitched for the Little League All-Star team from Trumbull, Conn. He got the starting nod for the nationally televised World Series championship game against a team from Taiwan.

"We knew we weren't supposed to win," Drury said. "I mean, we knew the combined scores of the past few championship games before that was 100-3 or something like that. Then you just looked at them physically, and there was no comparison between them and us. None. Nobody gave us a shot. I think we had looked at the other Americans and we were hoping, 'Gee, we hope we don't lose that bad.'"

But with the little catcher spitting between pitches -- that's the image his Boston University teammates loved to tease him about later -- the kids from Trumbull hung in there. Taiwan led 1-0 after the first inning, but a two-run bottom of the third gave the Americans a 2-1 lead halfway through the scheduled six-inning game.

"That seemed like a miracle in its own right," Drury says. "People were happy that they didn't have to leave early because we were getting killed."

Kenny Martin, still Drury's best friend, hit a home run. Drury also drove in a run and ended up jumping up and down -- in another moment preserved on tape and shown about 276 times on hockey broadcasts since -- when he got the final out. He had thrown a five-hitter and Trumbull had won 5-2.

"I think part of it was that in the years before, the U.S. teams had worked it so they'd have their big, hard-throwing kid ready for the championship game," Drury says. "I didn't even have a fastball. I threw curveballs and changeups and I think that threw them off. Plus, they had been so dominating, I don't think they were ready for us."

The Trumbull kids went to the White House, where they met President George Herbert Walker Bush in the first year of his administration, and to Yankee Stadium.

"I think it just made me realize at a young age what fun sports are, and it's a great thing to compete in big games," Drury said.

"It also gave me the taste of winning something big at a pretty young age, and I wanted to keep doing it," Drury added, "because it was so much fun."

They also were subjected to some backlash, involving the jealousy-based questioning of why they were being made so special and treated different because of their precocious athletic success. It's another reason Drury hasn't been particularly expressive about his athletic glories since.

So what happened to his baseball career?

"After that, I was playing both baseball, mostly as a catcher, and hockey," Drury says. "Actually, I got hurt playing hockey my junior year of high school and wasn't able to play baseball for a year, so it worked out that the decision was kind of made for me. I got checked in a hockey game and broke my wrist. I was able to play hockey with my hand in a cast, but not baseball."

During Pierre Lacroix's first offseason as the Nordiques' general manager, Quebec took both Drury and Czech winger Milan Hejduk in the 1994 draft, then settled back to wait. Drury ended up at Boston University, playing hockey for Jack Parker and the Terriers. BU won the NCAA championship in 1995, Drury's freshman season.

Later, after Colorado coach Marc Crawford tried to lobby the Avalanche to make a serious run at signing Drury during the summer of 1997, Drury won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as U.S. college hockey's top player in 1998. Given the lackluster track record of Hobey winners, it wasn't a harbinger of professional success, and the Avalanche organization didn't even seem all that intrigued at the time. Crawford had moved on by the time Drury did sign and reported to the 1998 camp, where Bob Hartley had moved up from coaching the Colorado minor-league affiliate.

Although Hartley had sent players to BU as a Junior A coach in his hometown of Hawkesbury, Ontario, he seemed skeptical of Drury at first. Even when he won the Calder Trophy in 1999, it was almost as if the Avalanche were ambivalent about his success.

They aren't any longer.

Especially in overtime.

Terry Frei of The Denver Post is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.