Alarm Finally Goes Off for the Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings weren’t near death after all. They just needed a wake-up call.

Nicklas Lidstrom scored two goals and set up a third and Sergei Fedorov had four assists as the Red Wings jump-started their sputtering offense to beat Colorado, 6-4, Thursday night and cut the Avalanche’s series lead to 2-1.

The Western Conference finals continue with Game 4 in Denver on Saturday night.

Detroit, hoping to become only the 15th team to rebound from losing the first two games at home and win a best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series, built a seemingly comfortable 5-2 lead late in the second period.

Colorado countered moments later with two goals seven seconds apart, and the Red Wings left the ice stunned. “That was an alarm clock for our team,” Coach Scotty Bowman said. “We talked about the fact we needed to play a solid third period.”

Lidstrom’s second goal, 32 seconds into the third period on a shot from the blue line, settled the Red Wings. “Most of the players felt that goal wiped out the advantage they [Colorado] had at the end of the second period,” Bowman said.

Lidstrom said he was “just trying to get the puck in the zone and get off [the ice]. It was a drop ball. Luckily, it went through the 5-hole [between Colorado goaltender Patrick Roy’s pads].”

Roy said he was screened on the faceoff, but didn’t want to make any excuses. “I mean, as a goaltender, you’re not supposed to give up a goal from the blue line, especially when the game is 5-4. The good thing is, as bad as we played tonight, we almost made a comeback.”

A game that featured hard hitting and a rash of penalties in the early going turned into a shootout in the second period. Each team scored a goal 20 seconds apart early in the second period, and four goals were scored in the last 4:26.

“They got a couple of extra whacks at pucks tonight, which didn’t happen in Detroit,” Avalanche Coach Marc Crawford said. “They moved the puck pretty well.”

The Red Wings, desperately seeking offense after being shut out in Game 2, got the first two goals and led 2-1 after one period.

Right wing Darren McCarty scored on a wraparound at 9:22--the first goal by a Detroit forward in the playoffs in 238 minutes and 53 seconds, or since the sixth game of the St. Louis series.

Barely a minute later, Lidstrom, a defenseman, scored his fourth goal of the playoffs on a shot from the point at 10:31.

After Detroit goalie Chris Osgood made two fine saves during a Colorado power play late in the second period, the Red Wings scored twice for a 5-2 lead.

With Detroit in a short-handed situation, Doug Brown stole the puck from Peter Forsberg at the blue line and got it to Vladimir Konstantinov on a breakaway, and he beat Roy on a backhanded flip at 15:34. Igor Larionov then scored a power-play goal at 17:41, putting in a rebound.