Avalanche home in on Stanley

Colorado will have home advantage in the final game

New Jersey Devils 0-4 Colorado Avalanche
Best-of-seven series is tied at 3-3

The Stanley Cup Finals series has been taken to a deciding seventh game after the Colorado Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils.

Outstanding performances from Patrick Roy and Adam Foote helped the Avalanche to a shut-out win, and they now have the advantage of playing the deciding game on home ice in Denver.

"They kicked our butts," said Devils coach Larry Robinson, whose side have now been outscored 12-1 in their three defeats in the series.

"When the game is over and you can't even pick a player that played well in a huge game like this it's very disappointing - they rubbed our faces in it."

Record performance

In stark contrast, Bob Hartley was delighted by the performance of his team at New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena.

The coach saved particular praise for Roy, saying: "He is a very intimidating goalie and is the story of our play-offs."

Roy, who was criticised for a blunder in game four, recorded a second shut-out of the series and tied one NHL record with his fourth of the play-offs as well as extending his own record of career play-off shut-outs to 19.

He stopped 24 shots, including 12 in a one-sided first period that the Avalanche finished leading 1-0.

Foote scored with just under two minutes remaining when he beat Martin Brodeur with a long slap shot.

Home and history

Foote modestly said that he got a "bit of puck luck" on a night when he also claimed two assists, the first of which enabled Ville Nieminen to break a 10-game scoring drought.

The Finnish rookie pushed his stick through a crowd to deflect in the second before Chris Dury made it 3-0 with his 11th goal of the play-offs towards the end of the second period.

Alex Tanguay put the game beyond doubt with a fourth goal in the third period.

For the second successive year, the Devils wasted an opportunity to win the cup at home and will now have to repeat their success at Dallas last season.

But history is on Colorado's side.

This is the first time since 1994 that the series has gone to the seventh game, and on the 10 occasions on which it has the home side has won eight times.