AVALANCHE ICES THE CUP : KRUPP'S GOAL IN THIRD OT TOPS PANTHERS COLORADO 1, FLORIDA 0.

Byline: Howard Ulman Associated Press 

In a brilliant finale, the Colorado Avalanche completed a Stanley Cup sweep for a city that didn't have a team a year ago and never had a major championship.

Defenseman Uwe Krupp decided the stirring, superbly played climax on the 119th shot of the game at 4:31 of the third overtime Monday night. His blast from the right point gave Colorado a 1-0 win over the gallant Florida Panthers in a game that ended after midnight.

Finally, after 104 minutes, 31 seconds of thrilling, end-to-end action, the team that moved to Denver after 16 seasons without a title as the Quebec Nordiques subdued the 3-year-old Panthers, who played with a maturity beyond their years.

The series was much closer than Colorado's 4-0 margin in games and 15-4 lead in goals. And Colorado's Patrick Roy and Florida's John Vanbiesbrouck were equally spectacular in their duel of veteran goalies in the clincher.

And Roy won, just as he did in 1993 when he had three overtime victories against the Kings in the Finals as Montreal won the Cup.

``It was a great game,'' Roy said. ``It was unbelievable. It was important to me to stay focused.''

Moments after Krupp's fourth playoff goal zoomed past Vanbiesbrouck, fans unleashed a shower of plastic rats, a ritual they followed all season after Panthers goals. They had to find another use for them in Florida's last game of the season.

And the Avalanche didn't mind. In the midst of the deluge, the players hugged each other in their defensive end, the patch of ice they guarded perfectly in the decisive game.

``They were an unbelievable story,'' Colorado coach Marc Crawford said of the Panthers. ``Hockey is in good hands here in South Florida.''

Krupp's goal ended the longest game of a final series since Edmonton beat Boston 15:13 into the third overtime on May 15, 1990.

Joe Sakic, whose 18 playoff goals were one short of the NHL record held by Philadelphia's Reggie Leach and Edmonton's Jari Kurri, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP.

``For the rest of my life I'll always remember this moment,'' Sakic said.

It could just have easily gone to Roy, who stopped all 63 Panthers shots. Vanbiesbrouck missed just one of Colorado's 56. And that bullet ended a determined game by a Panthers team fighting desperately to survive.

``We accomplished a lot this year,'' Vanbiesbrouck said. ``We can't be disappointed with our season. We put up as much resistance as we could.''

Krupp was an unlikely hero.

The 11-year veteran played in just six games this season and had no goals. He injured his knee Oct. 6 against Detroit and underwent surgery 15 days later. He didn't resume skating until March 3, and returned to action April 6. In 557 regular-season games in his career he has just 53 goals.

The Avalanche became only the second North American big-league team to win a title in its first season after relocation, joining football's Washington Redskins, who left Boston after the 1936 season.

Led by Roy, Sakic and a veteran nucleus, Colorado won the first two games at home 3-1 and 8-1. Then it quieted the raucous Panther partisans with a come-from-behind 3-2 win in an evenly played Game 3 on Saturday night.

Now Denver, frustrated in four Super Bowl losses by the Broncos, had a championship to celebrate that's far more significant than the International Hockey League title won last year by the Denver Grizzlies, who moved to Salt Lake City after the Avalanche arrived.

It was the sixth back-to-back sweep in the finals, following New Jersey's win over Detroit that ended a playoffs in which current Avalanche player Claude Lemieux was the MVP.

Colorado is the fifth different champion in five years, following Pittsburgh, Montreal, the New York Rangers and New Jersey.

The Avalanche had the NHL's second-best record but was overshadowed during the season by Detroit, which set a league mark with 62 wins. But the Avalanche, the second-highest scoring team in the league, made it to the finals by beating the Red Wings in the Western Conference finals after eliminating Vancouver and Chicago. All three series lasted six games.

The sweep ends a surprisingly strong season for the Panthers. They had the NHL's best record, 25-8-2, through 35 games, then lost three straight to fall to second.

After 60 games, they were third in the league before staggering to the finish with a 6-13-3 mark. But they revived in the playoffs, behind the exceptional goaltending of Vanbiesbrouck and a strong defense, beating Boston in five games and upsetting Philadelphia in six and Pittsburgh in seven.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--FINAL edition only--color) Colorado's Uwe Kru pp, who scored the game-winner, gets his hands on the Stanley Cup.

Associated Press

(2--VALLEY only--color) John Vanbiesbrouck stops Colorado's Adam Deadmarsh on a breakaway in the first period.

Andrew Bosch / Miami Herald