Legace, Red Wings Enjoy This Ending

The story line was not lost on Manny Legace.

Detroit’s goaltender was just glad this one had a happy ending.

Tomas Holmstrom and Kris Draper scored in the third period to lift the Red Wings to a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday in the opening game of their first-round Western Conference playoff series at Detroit.

“I was thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ ” said Legace, who made 23 saves in his first playoff start.

For the first two periods, there were striking similarities to Detroit’s playoff appearance last season when a young franchise with a goalie making his playoff debut rocked a star-studded team.

Tomas Vokoun played like Jean-Sebastien Giguere, and the Predators looked like the Mighty Ducks, who swept Detroit en route to the Stanley Cup finals.

Vokoun, in his first playoff game, made 18 saves during the first two periods and finished with 26.

“He made some unreal saves,” Legace said.

Vokoun, however, could not turn away the Red Wings when it mattered most.

Draper tied it 37 seconds into the third period and Holmstrom scored just over four minutes later. With 1:45 left, Robert Lang also had a goal for the Red Wings, who earned an NHL-best 109 points in the regular season.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in Detroit.

In Nashville’s first playoff game in its six-season history, Adam Hall scored 16 seconds into the game -- the quickest Detroit had been scored on in its playoff history.

Colorado 3, Dallas 1 -- The host Avalanche scored two goals in the first nine minutes and David Aebischer stopped 37 shots in his first playoff start.

Peter Forsberg, Alex Tanguay and Joe Sakic scored to put Colorado up, 3-0. Game 2 of the Western Conference series is Friday in Denver.

The defense-minded Stars were sluggish on both ends early and lost in the playoffs by more than a goal for the first time in two seasons.

Dallas picked up the pace with 32 shots the final two periods but couldn’t beat Aebischer until Niko Kapanen’s wrister trickled through his pads with 6:30 left.

Vancouver 5, Calgary 3 -- Martin Rucinsky scored the first of the Canucks’ four power-play goals to help beat the visiting Flames in the opener of a Western Conference series.

Sami Salo, Henrik Sedin and Brendan Morrison also took advantage of Calgary penalties and Mattias Ohlund added a goal during a delayed call to lift Vancouver to its seventh straight win, dating to the regular season.

Dan Cloutier made 26 saves, Markus Naslund had three assists, and Morrison set up two goals for the Canucks, who will play host to Game 2 on Friday night.

Boston 3, Montreal 0 -- Andrew Raycroft made 31 saves in his playoff debut and the Bruins’ mediocre power play came alive at home in the opener of the Eastern Conference series.

Sergei Gonchar and Michael Nylander, both obtained from Washington in early March, scored in the first period, and Mike Knuble connected late in the second, all against Jose Theodore.

Gonchar and Knuble scored on power plays for Boston, which had the worst man-advantage unit among the eight conference playoff teams (16.6%).

Game 2 is Friday night at Boston.