Red Wings close to burying Avalanche

Pavel Datsyuk scored twice and Johan Franzen picked up his sixth goal of the series, putting the Detroit Red Wings on the cusp of the Western Conference finals with a 4-3 victory Tuesday at Denver over the ailing Colorado Avalanche, who lost another star skater when leading scorer Paul Stastny went down with a knee injury in the first period.

The Red Wings can wrap up the series with a win in Game 4 on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center. None of the five previous playoff series between the archrivals ended in a sweep.

The Avs have lost all seven times they played Detroit this season. To advance to the conference finals, they’ll have to become the first team in 33 years to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs.

They sure don’t look ready to join the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders as the only NHL teams to win a series after losing the first three.Although center Peter Forsberg and defenseman Scott Hannan returned to Colorado’s lineup, the banged-up Avs were without forward Ryan Smyth (foot) even before losing Stastny, their leading scorer.

Penguins 5, Rangers 3: At New York, Evgeni Malkin and Pittsburgh pushed New York to the brink of elimination.

Malkin scored two power-play goals and added an assist to stretch the Penguins’ lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 3-0.

The Penguins are 7-0 in the postseason, still rolling after a four-game sweep of Ottawa in the first round.

Pittsburghlost all four road meetings with the Rangers this season.

Stars 2, Sharks 1: At Dallas, Mattias Norstrom scored from the top of the left circle 4:37 into overtime to give the Stars a 2-1 victory over San Jose and a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov made several impressive saves in the overtime.

But Nabokov had too many bodies around him and couldn’t see the shot by Norstrom, who scored his second goal in 49 playoff games.

Around the league

Calgary Flames right wing Jarome Iginla, Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin and Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin are the three finalists for the Hart Trophy that is awarded to the NHL’s most valuable player. … The Dallas Stars signed center Steve Ott to a two-year contract worth $2.85 million. … To possibly increase scoring, the NHL and its players’ union will examine reducing the size of goalie equipment June 11 in Toronto.