Playoffs scale hockey’s heights

After a scintillating, onegoal victory in the playoff series opener, the professional players representing Denver skated onto the home ice Saturday night for “Rock and Roll, Part 2.”

And the crowd goesWild. Whoops, wrong word. The crowd goes feral.

So, you are saying, we already know all that stuff. Tell us something we don’t know. OK, wiseacres. I’m talking about the other local hockey team— the Denver Cutthroats.

Admit it. You didn’t know they are playing in a universe parallel to the Avalanche. The circumstances and sensations were eerily similar Saturday night.

The two teams’ games are separated by only 3.19 miles, yet are worlds apart. One team is trying to win Lord Stanley’s Cup; the other seeks RayMiron’s Cup. The Avswere playing at The Can in front of 18,000 screaming witnesses; the Fishwere playing at The Col before 2,000 raucous fans.

Most Avalanche players get millions of dollars a year in salary. Most Cutthroats players are paid hundreds of dollars a week. For the Avs, this is The Big Time; for the Fish, this is “Slap Shot.”

But while watching games at both venues the past three nights, I thought: This is Playoff Hockey. The stage is bigger for the Avalanche, but the rink is the same size for the Cutthroats. The rules are the same for both, and the hits keep on coming just the same. In fact, if you want oldtime hockey, go over to the Elyria-Swansea, Stock Show neigh-