Detroit Makes Colorado See Red

The Detroit Red Wings turned to their Russian connection for new life in their Western Conference semifinal series with the Colorado Avalanche.

The Red Wings got goals from Igor Larionov and Sergei Fedorov in a 3-1 victory over the Avalanche on Monday night at Detroit to cut Colorado’s lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

“It seems to me we didn’t think much about going down three games,” said Fedorov, whose team was eliminated by Colorado in the conference semifinals last season. “We mostly concentrated on playing our game.”

The first three goals of the game came on power plays, and Brendan Shanahan scored into an empty net with 40 seconds remaining.

The Red Wings, who had looked a tad old and a step slow during the first two games, looked more like a team bent on reclaiming the Stanley Cup championship during the first period.

Detroit outshot the Avalanche, 36-23.

“I thought they played better,” Colorado goalie Patrick Roy said. “They played very well defensively.”

“We knew it would be hard to sweep that team,” Colorado’s Joe Sakic said. “That’s a good hockey club. They played tonight like we played in the first two games--when we won.”

The Red Wings started quickly. Flashing the speed and precision that made them the top-scoring team in the NHL during the regular season, Detroit had a 14-6 edge in shots during the first period and took a lead for the first time in the series.

Larionov ended the drought for Detroit, which was scoreless in its first nine power plays of the series, with a man-advantage goal at 9:38 while Colorado forward Milan Hejduk was off for holding Tomas Holmstrom’s stick. The goal was set up by Nicklas Lidstrom, who patiently glided through the left circle with the puck before passing it to Martin Lapointe near the left post.

Lapointe tipped it to Larionov, who had an open shot on the right side before Roy could recover.

“I thought they scored some nice goals,” Roy said. “They’re a good hockey team, but I don’t think we have to change very much.”

Peter Forsberg, who had scored the winning goal in three consecutive playoff games, tied it 1-1 with his fourth goal at 9:39 of the second while Larionov was off for holding. Forsberg, taking a pass from Ray Bourque, sent a slap shot over Detroit goalie Chris Osgood’s left shoulder.

Bourque, however, bruised his left foot sometime during the period and didn’t skate in the third period.

Fedorov’s goal, 30 seconds after Shjon Podein was sent off for tripping, gave Detroit a 2-1 lead. Roy, partially blocked by Holmstrom and Steve Yzerman, didn’t get a good look at the shot from the top of the left circle.

New Jersey 5, Toronto 1--If the Maple Leafs have hopes of ending their 33-year Stanley Cup drought, they had better find a way to beat goalie Martin Brodeur and the Devils.

Brodeur withstood Toronto’s best period of the series and stopped 22 shots overall, and the Devils got three goals from their special teams in beating the Maple Leafs at East Rutherford, N.J., to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.

“We did a lot of stupid things early that we hadn’t done in the first two games and luckily, Marty kept us in it,” Coach Larry Robinson said.

Jason Arnott, Scott Gomez, Patrik Elias, Petr Sykora and Alexander Mogilny scored, and Elias added two assists as New Jersey dominated for the third consecutive game.

New Jersey could easily have had a 3-0 lead if Curtis Joseph hadn’t stolen the opening game with a 32-save performance in a 2-1 Toronto victory.