Helm turns back clock with clinching goal for Avalanche in Game 6

ST. LOUIS — Darren Helm talked about his series-winning goal as if it were one he scored in a random regular-season game.

“Just rush up the ice, three guys going hard to the net and I was just kind of trailing,” the forward said after scoring with 5.6 seconds remaining in the third period to lift the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 win against the St. Louis Blues in Game 6 of the Western Conference Second Round at Enterprise Center on Friday. “Pass up the side wall and just wanted to put a puck on net. Found its way in.”

The Avalanche advanced to the conference final, where they’ll play the Edmonton Oilers beginning Tuesday in Denver.

“Felt great,” Helm said with a smile.

[RELATED: Complete Avalanche vs. Blues series coverage]

Perhaps he was so calm in the postgame rundown because he has been here, done this before. Thirteen years earlier to the day, his overtime goal gave the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 5 of the 2009 Western Conference Final to win the series.

This time around, Helm, who signed with Colorado as a free agent in the offseason after playing his first 14 NHL seasons for Detroit, helped end a lot of frustration for the Avalanche. They hadn’t been to the conference final since a seven-game loss to the Red Wings in 2002 and were eliminated in the second round the past three seasons.

“You know, there’s no other guy who deserves it as much as he does,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “You talk about his work ethic, but you know, he’s a guy who comes to the rink, smile on his face, gets along with everybody, leads by example. Obviously, he’s been around for a long time. I remember being a teenager back home in Sweden, watching him on those [Stanley] Cup [Final] runs with the Red Wings in ’08 and ’09. It’s been a pleasure playing with him, and obviously he steps up big tonight.”

Video: Helm’s buzzer beater advances Colorado

It was the second series-clinching goal of Helm’s NHL career, and the 13-year gap between them is the second longest in Stanley Cup Playoff history. Adam Oates scored series-clinchers 16 years apart (for the Red Wings in Game 7 of the 1987 Norris Division Final against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in Game 4 of the Western final against the Minnesota Wild).

Helm, a center on the fourth line, wasn’t the only Colorado player to come up big in Game 6.

Third-line center J.T. Compher scored his first two goals of the playoffs. His first tied it 1-1 early in the second, and his second goal, on the power play, tied it 2-2 midway through the third.

“It was huge,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Especially because we talked about [Blues forward Ryan] O’Reilly against [Nathan] MacKinnon, and you’re scratching and clawing to get chances, you know what I mean? Quality scoring chances in this series were hard to find. You needed to make a big mistake in order to get one, and the goalies were playing good. You’ve got to use all of your depth.

“J.T. Compher has a night. He comes out and hadn’t scored yet in this series. We had been talking about it and I wanted him to be more assertive and not so safe. They make a couple of plays tonight. [Andre] Burakovsky makes a great play on the entry and Manson has some deception in his game and gets it to the net, and Compher is right there and then he makes a great shot at the end of the power play. That’s huge.”

As the Avalanche said, their work isn’t done. Edmonton, which defeated the Calgary Flames in five games in the second round, awaits. Nevertheless, it’s been a while since the Avalanche have gotten this far, and they’ll enjoy it for a day, anyway.

“There will only be four teams [left] soon and obviously the job’s not finished, but that’s a great accomplishment for us,” MacKinnon said. “There have been some dark times. It’s nice to get over this [second-round] hump, for sure. It definitely felt like we outplayed them this series, just some tough periods on our end, but even tonight, we played a great 60 minutes. … Obviously big goals by ‘Comph’ and ‘Helmer.’ I thought we outplayed them for the majority of the series and definitely tonight and we deserved a good bounce there at the end.”