Sakic Keeps the Avalanche Alive

Joe Sakic seems determined to keep the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup playoffs all by himself.

Sakic scored his second goal 1:54 into overtime and the Avalanche avoided elimination for the second time, defeating the Sharks, 2-1, Saturday to cut San Jose’s lead to 3-2 in the Western Conference semifinal series.

The Colorado captain also tied the score midway through the third period for the Avalanche, which dominated the final two periods and overtime to hand the Sharks their first home loss in six playoff games.

Sakic, who made this game necessary with an overtime goal Wednesday, scored easily in the overtime. He took a backhand pass from Peter Forsberg and beat Evgeni Nabokov low to the stick side for his seventh goal of the postseason, tying San Jose’s Patrick Marleau for the NHL lead.

The Avalanche is halfway to the third comeback from an 0-3 series deficit in NHL history -- and after San Jose’s tentative play in Game 5, Colorado seems quite capable of the first such rally since 1975, when the New York Islanders accomplished the feat.

Colorado also caused serious cracks in the confidence of the young Sharks, who seemed to wilt under the pressure of a closeout game.

As demonstrated by Forsberg’s chemistry with Sakic, the Avalanche veterans have been in this situation before: They rallied from a 3-2 deficit against the Sharks two years ago.

“It’s about momentum, and we’ve got it now,” Sakic said. “Everybody thought we were done, the worst team on the planet. We’ve got too many quality guys to go out that way, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t get the next one.”

Game 6 is Tuesday night in Denver, with a possible Game 7 Thursday in San Jose.

“I just felt he was there,” Forsberg said of Sakic on the decisive assist. “The way we played in the second, third and overtime, we showed a lot of heart. That’s how we got to the playoffs. We’ve had to work hard for everything in this series, but we’re finally catching some breaks.”

Sakic said simply: “Peter knew.”

After several defensive miscues and Colorado near-misses, the Avalanche finally broke through with 10:10 left in the third period. Teemu Selanne circled the net and found Sakic, capping 30 minutes of dominant play by the Avalanche’s fast and skilled forwards.

David Aebischer made 21 saves and possibly turned the tide in his goalie matchup with Nabokov, who was often left unprotected by the Sharks’ poor defense and backchecking.

After getting pulled in Game 1, Aebischer has given up only two goals in three games -- though he was barely tested Saturday.

Nabokov made 16 saves, but his teammates followed up a solid first period with their worst performance of the playoffs. After Vincent Damphousse scored during a two-man advantage late in the first period, the Sharks managed to generate only three shots in the next 35 minutes.

Calgary 1, Detroit 0 -- The Red Wings lost captain Steve Yzerman, then the game at Detroit.

Craig Conroy scored with 3:53 left in the second period -- soon after Yzerman was hit in the face with a puck -- and Miikka Kiprusoff made 31 saves to give the Flames a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.

Game 6 is Monday night in Calgary. If necessary, Game 7 will be in Detroit on Wednesday.

The Flames, in the playoffs for the first time since 1996, are in the second round for the first time since winning the Cup in 1989.

“It’s a performance that you can say on a scale of 1-10, of what we put in, that’s a 10,” Calgary Coach Darryl Sutter said.

Kiprusoff’s second shutout of the playoffs was the first against the Red Wings in Detroit since 1997 -- 52 postseason games ago. Detroit pulled goaltender Curtis Joseph with 48 seconds left, put pressure on Kiprusoff, but could not get a shot past him.

“He made the saves. I don’t know if he saw every one of them,” Detroit Coach Dave Lewis said. “He made some big saves against a team with big-time goal scorers.”

About four minutes before Conroy scored, on an assist from Jarome Iginla, Yzerman left the game.

Detroit’s Mathieu Schneider fired a shot that ricocheted in front and hit Yzerman squarely in the face as he stood to the left of the net.

Yzerman, who doesn’t wear a face shield, immediately dropped to the ice and kicked his legs in pain as he was sprawled out.

After being down for a couple minutes, he was helped to the dressing room as a towel was held near his left eye.

Yzerman went to a hospital for X-rays, and the Red Wings are expected to update his condition after they practice in Detroit today.