Lemieux, Avalanche Score Victory

April 29, 1998 / 2:10 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Playoff time has always been the right time for Claude Lemieux.

Tuesday night, Lemieux scored another game-winning goal to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers and a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-7 playoff series.

For Lemieux, it was his 19th career playoff game-winner.

"He's always stepping up in the playoffs," said linemate Peter Forsberg, who set up Lemieux and scored twice. "He's really a class player. Not that he has been bad in the regular season, but the playoffs that's his game."

The goal moved Lemieux into second place on the all-time list in game-winning goals one ahead of Maurice (Rocket) Richard and five behind Wayne Gretzky.

"It wouldn't be a big deal if it was just a regular-season game-winner," said Lemieux. "That's what's great about the playoffs, you enjoy the pressure, the moment."

Lemieux ripped a hard shot from the right faceoff dot that caught Oilers goaltender Curtis Joseph leaning the wrong way and the puck found the far corner.

"As I've always said, that's how I broke into this league in the playoffs in 1986 and we (Montreal) won the Cup," said Lemieux. "I thought that every game was going to be like it was in the '86 playoffs and it was a big letdown going into the next season.

"I realized the playoffs are very special and the best comes out of me in the playoffs and I'm just glad I can contribute to the team."

After spotting Colorado two-goal leads in the first three games of the series, the Oilers finally managed to score first against the Avalanche.

Edmonton opened the scoring when Ryan Smyth scored a pretty power-play goal at 17:52 of the first period for his first of the series.

"Obviously, it's a heartbreaking loss, but it's not over, we're going to go down there and work that much harder," said Smyth.

The series continues with Game 5 Thursday in Denver.

Smyth dashed down the right side and whipped Doug Weight's crisp cross-ice pass past Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy.

Weight said the Oilers were able to keep pace with the Avalanche throughout most of the game.

"It's disappointing to come for two games after a split and play well and come up empty," said Weight. "Going back down 3-1 is difficult and disappointing, but we're going to go out and do the best we can.

"We're going to try to steal one out of Denver. We've played them very close in all three games and they could've gone either way."

The Edmonton lead was shortlived in the furiously-paced game, however, as Colorado stormed back to score 17 seconds later while the raucous sellout crowd of 17,099 was still celebrating the Oiler goal.