Avs Finish Sweep of Wings in Home-and-Home Series

Powered by two disputed goals and the netminding of Patrick Roy, the Colorado Avalanche completed their two-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings with a five-to-three victory in Denver.

The Red Wings were leading at the start of the third and looked as though they might split the series before the Avalance scored twice to take the lead. They added an empty-net goal late in the period.

With Detroit leading by one eight minutes into the final period, Adam Foote beat Detroit netminder Curtis Joseph while Colorado forward Peter Forsberg was in the crease. An irate Joseph quickly turned to the referees, who ruled that the play was not reviewable and the goal would stand.

Almost five minutes later, Colorado’s Steve Reinprecht attempted a wrap-around as Joseph scrambled to the side of the net. The puck was deflected off of Radim Vrbata’s skate and Joseph appeared to make the save, but upon review the goal was allowed.

Detroit had taken the lead on two goals by Tomas Homstrom and one by Brendan Shanahan after the Avalanche opened the scoring.

At 7:31 of the first period, Milan Hejduk beat Joseph to put Colorado on the board. Three minutes later, while the Red Wings were on the power play, Tomas Holmstrom skated in on Roy and put the pick past him to tie the game.

Holmstrom got his second of the game just under a minute later, putting a bouncing puck past Roy during a scramble around the net to put the Wings in the lead.

Hejduk’s second of the game re-tied things. While Colorado enjoyed a two-man advantage Hejduk beat Joseph again and evened things up with just over five minutes left in the first period.

Shanahan gave the Wings the lead again early in the second. When a Sergei Fedorov shot got deflected to the side of the net, a wide-open Shanahan flipped the puck into the net.

Hejduk completed the hat trick with Colorado’s empty-net goal, which deflected off a Red Wing stick on the way down the ice.