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DENVER (AP) -- Peter the Great is beginning to rule the postseason.
Without a goal in the first four playoff games, Peter Forsberg scored his third goal in as many games -- and his third straight game-winner -- as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Saturday.
|  | | Patrick Roy wasn't afraid to wander from his net, even though it eventually cost the Avs a goal. |
With the penalty-marred victory, the Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals. Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Detroit on Monday and Wednesday.
Forsberg and Milan Hejduk both had power-play goals in the first period for Colorado, 14-1 in its last 15 games including the final eight games of the regular season.
"I think we played solid, and Patrick (goalie Patrick Roy) has been outstanding," Forsberg said. But he also sounded a warning.
"We had two lucky bounces in the first period and got two goals out of it," he said. "I don't think that is going to happen every game.
"We expected Detroit to come out and play even better than in Game 1, and they did. They are usually so much better at home, so we have to be ready."
Tomas Holmstrom broke Detroit's scoring drought with a goal midway through the third period, but Colorado's Chris Drury countered with an empty-net score at 19:01.
Roy had 29 saves, and Detroit's Chris Osgood had 30. Roy has 116 playoff victories, extending his NHL record.
It was Colorado's sixth straight playoff victory over the Red Wings, counting the final four games of their second-round series a year ago when the Avalanche rallied from a 2-0 series deficit.
"Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be," Wings forward Darren McCarty said. "We won two games here last year, and they bombarded us the next four games. So hopefully we can do that to
them.
"In the first two games, they've played sound defensively, and Patrick Roy has come up with the saves when they've needed them and they've been able to get two-goal leads early in each game and sat on it. We're not getting frustrated. The puck is just not going in for us."
Detroit, which led the NHL with 278 goals during the regular season, has only one goal in the series, having been shutout by Roy in the opener.
Detroit captain Steve Yzerman said he was "not overly concerned with the lack of scoring, other than we've got to get more on the power play. Basically the two games have come down to special teams. They scored two power-play goals. That's the name of the game -- special teams."
After these bitter rivals played a rare penalty-free game in the regular-season finale and were reasonably well-behaved in the opening game of this series, the latent animosity surfaced early in Saturday's game. Each team drew seven penalties for 14 minutes in the first period, including double minors for high-sticking against Detroit's Steve Duchesne and Vyacheslav Kozlov.
Vigilant from the start, referees Mark Faucette and Don Van Massenhoven sent McCarty and Colorado's Adam Foote to the penalty box just 1:32 into the game. Later in the period, four players, two from each team, were whistled following a skirmish.
After Duchesne went off on a four-minute penalty that video replay showed should have been called on Sergei Fedorov, Hejduk backhanded in a rebound of his own shot at 8:12.
At 15:49, Forsberg scored on a dazzling play. Bringing the puck down the right side, Forsberg eluded defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and then put a move on defenseman Chris Chelios in the right circle, spinning Chelios around, before flipping the puck from the slot over Osgood's left shoulder.
"The puck came back to me, hit my pad and I had great speed," Forsberg said. "When I cut back, he (Chelios) was caught in a bad position. And Osgood never saw it."
Colorado outshot the Red Wings 16-9 in the period.
The chippiness continued in the second period, with Detroit drawing five more penalties for 18 minutes.
Four players again were sent to the box at one time, three of them from Detroit including Holmstrom for a 10-minute misconduct at 16:06.
Detroit got a goal by Holmstrom at 8:12 of the third period.
Roy chased the puck to the left of the net but it deflected at a weird angle off the boards to the front of the goal, where Holmstrom scored past a diving Roy.
Detroit finished with 13 penalties totaling 34 minutes, while Colorado had nine penalties for 18 minutes.
Despite that high number, Yzerman insisted that "power-play goals, not penalties, are deciding these games."
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Detroit Clubhouse
Colorado Clubhouse
RECAPS
Colorado 3
Detroit 1
Pittsburgh 4
Philadelphia 1
New Jersey 1
Toronto 0
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Milan Hejduk splits the Red Wing defenders for the goal.
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RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Peter Forsberg converts on the power-play.
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Tomas Holmstrom beats Patrick Roy to the puck for the Red Wings' only goal.
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RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Peter Forsberg credits Colorado's special teams.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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