Avalanche crush Devils

Avalanche captain Sakic led his team to a dream start

Colorado 5-0 New Jersey

Joe Sakic scored twice and Patrick Roy posted his third shut-out of the play-offs as Colorado took game one of the Stanley Cup finals.

After the way the Devils manhandled Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the previous round, the Avalanche's domination was nothing short of stunning.

Roy made 25 saves to extend his NHL career record to 18 play-off shutouts.

He has now won nine consecutive Stanley Cup championship games, dating back to game two of the 1993 finals with Montreal.

In two regular season meetings between these teams the Devils had scored 12 goals, chasing Roy from the net each time.

But it was the legendary post-season "St Patrick" whom New Jersey ran into on Saturday, while Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur suffered his worst game of the play-offs.

Brodeur was punished by the Avalanche

Chris Drury, Rob Blake and Steven Reinprecht scored the other Colorado goals.

"We are a team that's aggressive, sometimes overly agressive, and when we get the puck moving and we're skating, we are at our very best," said Blake.

The Avalanche played tremendous defence, shutting down New Jersey's snipers and making the Devils look out of sorts.

At the other end of the rink, New Jersey's usually solid defensive corps was repeatedly burned.

Historically, the win bodes well for Colorado.

Since the league adopted the best-of-seven championship format, the team winning the opening game has gone on to capture the Cup 49 out of 62 seasons.

The Devils will look to get even in on Tuesday in Denver.

This is the first time in 12 years that the NHL's top two seeds have reached the finals.

Colorado won in 1996 in their only other final appearance. New Jersey won the crown in 1995 and 2000.