Wings Win 5-2 To Remain Alive

Sometimes the hardest thing is to finish off an opponent. The Colorado Avalanche learned that Monday night.

The Detroit Red Wings, again responding to the moment, remain alive in their NHL Western Conference playoff final. And this time there is the Russian unit to thank.

With linemates Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Fedorov each scoring and goaltender Chris Osgood making clutch saves, the Red Wings staved off elimination and defeated the Avalanche 5-2.

“As a team, as a group, we seem to play well in these desperate situations,” Detroit defenseman Vlacheslav Fetisov said.

Colorado leads 3-2, with the best-of-seven series shifting to Denver on Wednesday night.

“The toughest thing of all is putting those guys away,” Colorado forward Adam Deadmarsh said. “You have to put them away. All the things you have to do, we have to do now.”

If the Red Wings win in Denver, Game 7 is Friday night in Detroit. The last time the Red Wings won three straight was in mid-April. They won their last four regular-season games for an NHL-record 62 wins.

“We didn’t think about Game 6 coming into tonight and can’t think about a Game 7 on Wednesday,” Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. Doug Brown and Greg Johnson had the other goals for Detroit, which broke to a 2-0 lead after one period and avoided elimination for the third time since the playoffs began.

Mike Ricci scored twice on power plays for Colorado, which was 2 of 4 with a man advantage. Ricci’s power-play goals tied a franchise playoff record set by Michel Goulet against Montreal on April 21, 1985.

Colorado, which outshot Detroit 28-26, had won its last four road games, and was 6-2 on the road during the playoffs. But the Red Wings are 9-2 when scoring first in the playoffs.

This time they scored the first two goals in a 1:04 span of the first period.

“We weren’t as down as people thought we were,” Bowman said. “You can’t get down this time of year. We’ve got two teams that are very close with a lot of players who can break open a game.”

Fedorov got things started with one of his crowd-pleasing dashes up the ice. He passed to Brown, who came around the backside and centered the puck. Kozlov, slipping in front of Joe Sakic, tomahawked the puck into the net with a backhander at 11:35 of the first.

Twenty-three seconds later, Osgood made perhaps the game’s key play, stopping Peter Forsberg from close range. If the Avalanche had tied it so quickly, it might have changed the complexion of the game.

Instead, the Red Wings still had the lead and quickly added to it.

“That was a big save by Osgood,” Colorado defenseman Uwe Krupp said. “They played a good Detroit game tonight. They had a good plan and they stuck to it.”

Red Wings 5, Avalanche 2

Colorado 0 2 0 - 2

Detroit 2 3 0 - 5

First period-1, Detroit, Kozlov 5 (Brown, Fedorov), 11:35. 2, Detroit, Larionov 6 (Konstantinov, Yzerman), 12:39. Second period-3, Colorado, Ricci 3 (Sakic, Deadmarsh), 2:10 (pp). 4, Detroit, Fedorov 2 (Coffey), 4:18. 5, Colorado, Ricci 4 (Ozolinsh, Young), 8:00 (pp). 6, Detroit, Brown 3 (Coffey, Kozlov), 12:15. 7, Detroit, Johnson 3 (Lapointe, Ramsey), 19:28. Third period-None.

Shots on goal-Colorado 9-14-5-28. Detroit 11-12-3-26.Power-play opp.-Colorado 2 of 4; Detroit 0 of 5.Goalies-Colorado, Roy 11-6 (26 shots-21 saves). Detroit, Osgood 8-6 (28-26).A-19,983 (19,875).