Sakic, Roy Propel Avalanche

In lieu of flowers, the Colorado Avalanche gave Peter Forsberg a victory.

Two days after a ruptured spleen ended Forsberg’s season, the Avalanche got two goals from Joe Sakic and another superb performance from Patrick Roy for a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Saturday at Denver.

Forsberg’s teammates have been unable to see or talk to him since his emergency surgery Thursday.

“He was a little bit too sore for visitors,” Sakic said. “When he’s up to it, guys are going to pay a visit to him.”

They will have plenty to talk about after Sakic capitalized on a rare penalty shot in the second period and scored again after a fortuitous bounce that deflated the Blues in the third.

St. Louis also fell apart on the penalty kill, given up two power-play goals. The Blues had killed 38 of 39 penalties in the first two rounds.

“We did everything we possibly could wrong,” St. Louis forward Keith Tkachuk said. “I hope to say we can’t get any worse.”

While Sakic finished with two goals and two assists, linemate Milan Hejduk also scored twice as Colorado ended St. Louis’ six-game winning streak and improved to 5-0 in playoff games without Forsberg, a six-time all-star.

“It’s pretty tough to play without Forsberg,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said. “You can’t call up anyone from the minors and ask him to replace Peter Forsberg.”

Even without Forsberg, the Avalanche still has five all-stars, including Roy, who made 30 saves to extend his impressive playoff run. He has surrendered four goals in the last five games.

St. Louis’ Roman Turek finished with 26 saves and gave up more than two goals for the first time in seven games.

Coming off a taxing seven-game series against the Kings, the Avalanche looked much sharper than the Blues, who were playing for the first time in nine days after a sweep of the Dallas Stars.

St. Louis gained the momentum briefly on Scott Young’s short-handed goal that tied the score, 1-1, 25 seconds into the second period, but the tide turned when Turek was whistled for illegally throwing his stick at the puck 6:20 later.

Sakic was awarded the first postseason penalty shot in franchise history, and he flipped a wrist shot past Turek on the stick side.

St. Louis Coach Joel Quenneville initially questioned the call on Turek but later said referee Don Koharski had a good view of the play.

New Jersey 3, Pittsburgh 1--Patrik Elias set up two goals by Petr Sykora and the defending Stanley Cup champion Devils shut out the Penguins’ Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in the opening game of the Eastern Conference finals at East Rutherford, N.J.

Randy McKay also scored and goalie Martin Brodeur had a relatively easy night after a busy first eight minutes in giving New Jersey the edge in the best-of-seven series.

Martin Straka gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead 3:06 into the game.

Doug Gilmour of the Buffalo Sabres is calling it quits after 18 seasons. Gilmour, 37, wraps up a career in which he won the Stanley Cup in 1989 with the Calgary Flames. A forward, he finishes 11th on the all-time assist list with 914 and 18th in points with 1,343.