Saturday, June 9 Stanley Cup finally falls in Bourque's hands DENVER (AP) -- Finally, Ray Bourque touched the Stanley Cup -- and that was only the start. He also kissed it, raised it, rejoiced over it, cradled it like a newborn, pumped it as if he were weightlifting. And maybe he was. Alex Tanguay, left and Joe Sakic combined for three goals and two assists in Game 7 for the Avs. After 22 seasons, after chasing it since the 1970s, the weight of not winning the Stanley Cup is finally off his shoulders. The cup belongs to him, and the Colorado Avalanche, and Bourque acted as if he may never let go. The Avalanche used home ice to its advantage in a series where the visiting team had won four times, scoring the first three goals to wrest the cup from the New Jersey Devils with an emotional 3-1 victory Saturday night in only the third finals Game 7 in 30 seasons. Alex Tanguay supplied the scoring touch with two goals and the 40-year-old Bourque, who had played a record 1,825 games without ever touching hockey's biggest prize, finally won the cup he has chased over a distinguished career spanning four decades. "It was a great story, and the way it ended really was," Bourque said. "All year long, we said home ice would be the key, and it was." In a game where the No. 1 lines scored every goal, Joe Sakic set up Tanguay once and scored himself as the Avalanche opened a 3-0 edge reminiscent of their 5-0 win in Game 1, then held off a second period flurry as the Devils desperately tried to hold onto their Cup. Patrick Roy won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs, the first player to win it three times. Roy had won it in 1986 and 1993 for Montreal, yet even he said he wasn't the story. "Right now, I'm just thinking about Ray," Roy said. When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman handed the cup to Sakic, the Colorado captain, he quickly shoved it into Bourque's hands. For the first time, Bourque finally showed emotion, smiling, kissing the cup emphatically and lifting to the sky before a victory lap he once thought he might never take. "It's unbelievable," Bourque said. "It's really emotional. It's tough to keep it together. I couldn't let it go until the end." He also took it on a second lap, and a third, as if to remind himself it truly was happening. Call it an omen, call it destiny, but Bourque's number finally came up -- No. 77 in Game 7 -- and the Stanley Cup is his. "It's great to be on a team that wins the cup for Ray Bourque," said Sakic, who scored a goal after being shut out since Game 2. "It's great to be on this team." Asked if he might retire now that he has finally won the cup, Bourque said he would wait two or three weeks to decide. "In our hearts and our lives, we were playing for Ray Bourque," said coach Bob Hartley, a former windshield installer who never played pro hockey and didn't begin his coaching career until he was 27. "I'll remember coaching Ray Bourque until I close my little eyes." As Bourque's streak ended, so did Devils coach Larry Robinson's run of never losing the cup, despite his pregame prediction that New Jersey would ruin Denver's prematurely announced plans for a parade. Robinson had been 8-0 in the finals as a player, assistant coach and head coach, but that streak ended as Colorado -- which had lost Game 7s to Dallas in the Western Conference finals the previous two seasons -- won its second cup in six seasons. They also won in 1996, the season they moved from Quebec. "I felt very confident going into this game, very confident," Robinson said. "It's 1-0, we took a stupid penalty, it's 2-0 and you are fighting the rest of the game to get back." As the game ended, several Devils were in tears, and several more were crying in the locker room afterward. The Avalanche, who denied New Jersey the chance to clinch the cup at home by winning 4-0 in Game 6, are the first team since the 1971 Montreal Canadiens to rally from a 3-2 deficit in the finals. "It was a bumpy ride and we faced adversity, but nobody gave up," said Roy, who rebounded after straying from the net and allowing the tying goal in a seemingly pivotal 3-2 loss in Game 4 in New Jersey. Roy, back on his game just when the Avalanche needed him most, turned aside 25 of 26 shots to follow up his 4-0 shutout in Game 6 and win his fourth cup over three decades, following up those for Montreal in 1986 and 1993 and Colorado's 1996 cup. In an unpredictable series in which Colorado lost twice at home but outscored the Devils 15-2 in their four victories, the Avalanche got the early goal they were hoping for to keep their 295th consecutive sellout crowd at its Mile High loudest. As the Devils' Brian Rafalski and Bobby Holik collided in front of the net, causing Rafalski's stick to jam inside goalie Martin Brodeur's jersey, Tanguay carried the puck from behind the net and powered a wrist shot into the top of the net at 7:58 of the first period. Brodeur, who could have won his third cup and denied his idol, Roy, his fourth, had an uneven game on the worst possible night, letting in three goals before Roy allowed his first to put the Devils in the kind of hole that is almost impossible to overcome in such a big game. And, if Bourque's Cup quest wasn't enough motivation, Tanguay's goal gave a noisy, revved-up, ready-to-celebrate crowd the momentum needed to create the home ice edge missing as New Jersey had won the previous two games in Colorado, by 2-1 and 4-1. Colorado kept its early surge going to score twice in a span of 1:19 of the second period, both times by the Tanguay-Sakic-Hedjuk line that came alive late in the series after disappearing midway through it, after Sakic scored three goals in the first two games. Defenseman Adam Foote threaded an excellent breakout pass along the boards to Sakic, who rushed in on Brodeur from the neutral zone. Brodeur made the initial save, but the puck rebounded directly to Tanguay, who pushed it into the net as he slid across the ice at 4:57 of the first for his fourth goal in the last three games. A high-sticking penalty on Devils defenseman Sean O'Donnell, back in the lineup after being scratched for two games, set up what proved to be the all-important third goal. O'Donnell poked his stick in Shjon Podein's face well after the play, the kind of retaliation penalty that got New Jersey in trouble earlier in the series. "Stupid penalties, needless penalties," Robinson said. "Disciplined teams win championships, and that's one of the reasons Colorado beat us." Only 25 seconds into the power play, Sakic scored his playoff-leading 12th goal and his first since Game 2, a wrister through Brodeur and Scott Stevens after a tic-tac-toe sequence of passes by Hejduk and Tanguay. Brodeur was playing his 97th game, the most in any season by a goalie, but Robinson discounted fatigue, saying, "I don't think so. They had the crowd and the adrenaline Petr Sykora ended Roy's scoreless streak at 90 minutes, 28 seconds midway through the period, on a power play resulting from Eric Messier's penalty, but the Devils couldn't get the puck past Roy again despite dominating the offensive chances for the rest of the period and early into the third period. Game notes The visiting team had the previous two games, since New Jersey rallied for a 3-2 victory in Game 4, when Roy abandoned the net and let in the tying goal in the third period. ... Only one team in NHL history, Toronto in 1942, has rallied to win in the third period of a finals Game 7. ... New Jersey is 2-5 in road Game 7s. ... The Devils avoided becoming the first team to be shut out three teams in the finals since the 1965 Chicago Blackhawks. ... New Jersey played its 25th playoff game of the season, one short of Philadelphia's 1987 league record. ... Bourque is 8-1 in Game 7s, but this was his first such game in the finals. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories

ALSO SEE St. Patrick wins Conn Smythe as playoffs MVP This time, Devils can't dig out of hole Riot squads use tear gas to control crowds in Denver Feedback: What is your best memory from Game 7? AUDIO/VIDEO  Alex Tanguay scores his second goal on a rebound of Joe Sakic's shot (Courtesy: ABC Sports). avi: 1060 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN Cable Modem  Joe Sakic wrists a shot past Scott Stevens and Martin Brodeur for a power-play goal (Courtesy: ABC Sports). avi: 1270 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN Cable Modem  Patrik Elias sets up Petr Sykora on the power play for the Devils' only goal of the game (Courtesy: ABC Sports). avi: 1630 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN Cable Modem  Alex Tanguay skates from behind the net and beats Martin Brodeur in the first (Courtesy: ABC Sports). avi: 1430 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN Cable Modem  The Devils are twice robbed of goals in the first -- once by Patrick Roy and again by the post (Courtesy: ABC Sports). avi: 2310 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN Cable Modem