Leopold finally gets healthy, and so does the Avalanche at same time

DENVER - The NHL owners locked out the players for the 2004-05 nonseason in order to gain a salary cap. When hockey returned, the Colorado Avalanche was among the teams with too many stars to fit inside the cap.

Forward Alex Tanguay was getting close to free agency and needed a new contract. The Avs couldn't figure out how to pay him, so on June 24, 2006, they traded Tanguay to Colorado for defenseman Jordan Leopold and a second-round draft choice.

Only the hockey fans out here that also followed the University of Denver had much awareness of Leopold, the Hobey Baker winner with the Minnesota Gophers.

Tanguay was a 27-goal scorer for the Avalanche when it won the Stanley Cup in 2001. He remained productive through his last season here, scoring a career-high 29 goals.

Then, Tanguay went to Calgary last season and totaled 81 points. By comparison, Leopold was playing a total of 15 games while working on a list of injuries that would have kept "ER'' in episodes for another season.

It would be sizable understatement to say Avalanche followers are not thrilled when reminded of the Tanguay-for-Leopold exchange.

Leopold missed his 67 games in 2006-07 because of hernia surgery, a groin injury and a wrist injury. He also was absent for Colorado's 11 playoff games.

This season, Leopold increased his workload to 43 games, to go with 33 games missed to wrist, leg, head and two hip injuries. He also missed two games to illness and four at the whim of coach Joel Quenneville.

Leopold, now 27, was not in the lineup when the Avalanche and the Wild split two overtime games last week in St. Paul. "I'm healthy,'' he said. "I'm just waiting to get the call.''

Leopold did not play on Monday night, when the Wild won 3-2 in overtime to take a 2-1 lead in the series. The winning goal came after a poor decision by Colorado's Jeff Finger, a former St. Cloud State defenseman who was a college rival of Leopold.

Finger took a bad route to the puck and didn't get an icing call against the Wild. Brian Rolston beat him to the puck, fed Pierre Marc-Bouchard and the game was over.

And, on Tuesday night, Leopold was in the lineup and Finger was out.

The Avalanche came out roaring, as always seems to be case when it's home for the playoffs, and it found an opponent with no ability to counterattack on this night.

Leopold started the play that led to Colorado's first goal -- by Andrew Brunette -- at 4:01. He actually went to the bench before the play was completed, so Leopold had an assist but was not officially on the ice for the goal.

He was on the ice for the two that followed in the next seven minutes as Colorado jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first 11:08. The second goal came when Keith Carney lost the puck and it slid to Wojtek Wolski. The next came from Tyler Arnason on a slapshot from inside the blue line, both making it 3-0 and regaining some pride for St. Cloud State.

Leopold and Arnason were both in on the power play goal that made it 4-0 at 7:42 of the second. The goal come from Ruslan Salei on the left point.

Thus, in his first 28 minutes of 2008 playoff action, Leopold had two assists, was on the ice for two other goals and officially was a plus-3.

The Avalanche wound up with a 5-1 victory to even the series at 2-2. And it's a certainty that when the teams take the ice on Thursday night in St. Paul, Leopold will be in the Colorado lineup.

He was swimming in a pool of lovely sweat in the home locker room on Tuesday.

"I got a chance to get in the lineup, and it was a big win for us,'' Leopold said.

A Colorado radio reporter said, "You were on the ice for the first four goals,'' and Leopold responded: "I don't know if it was the first four.''

He was aware that he wasn't officially on the ice for the first goal, even though he started the play.

"Yeah, I made the pass and left on a change,'' he said.

Once it was 4-0, the Wild started taking runs at Avalanche players whenever possible. And Avs responded with cheap shots of their own.

What did Leopold think of the Wild's attempt at rough stuff?

"We got a lot of power plays out of it,'' Leopold said. "It helped to keep us in control of the game.''

Leopold was asked how long he has been healthy. "Oh, a couple of weeks now,'' he said. "I did get hit late in the season and was banged up a little. I would hope if I could stay healthy, I would be able to step up [as a contributor].''