Avs advance with 2-1 win over Wild

By Rick Sadowski, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 19, 2008 at 10:54 p.m.

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Photo by Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Colorado Avalanche left wing Ryan Smyth, right, celebrates his second period goal with teammates John-Michael Liles, center, and David Jones (54) against the Minnesota Wild in Game 6.

On to the second round.

The Avalanche clinched its Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series Saturday night with a tightly-contested 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild before a roaring sellout crowd at the Pepsi Center.

Ryan Smyth and Ben Guite scored the goals and goalie Jose Theodore continued his exemplary play by turning aside 34 shots as the sixth-seeded Avalanche knocked off the No. 3 and Northwest Division champion Wild for the third consecutive time to win the best-of-seven series in six games.

“We’re one step closer,” Theodore said. “It was a battle. They’re a great team. Now we’ll be able to watch the other teams. I’m really proud of how the guys played in front of me. We showed a lot of character coming back from a 2-1 (series) deficit.”

The Avalanche’s second-round opponent could be determined Sunday and very likely will be the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings, who have a 3-2 series lead against No. 8 Nashville and meet the Predators on Sunday afternoon.

“I guess we’re the first Western Conference team to go through,” said Peter Forsberg, who clanged two shots off goal posts in the third period. “We’ll see what happens, who we get to play. But definitely it’s great to get a couple days off.”

Smyth put the Avalanche ahead 2-1 at 12:20 of the second period and the Avalanche held off the Wild in the third, which had been its worst period of the series.

Rookie David Jones, who played a strong game, passed from behind the net to Smyth in the left circle. He shrugged off a check by Pierre-Marc Bouchard and one-timed his shot past goalie Niklas Backstrom, who finished with 28 saves.

The point was Jones’ first in playoff competition.

The Wild had tied the game 1-1 just 36 seconds into the period on a goal by Aaron Voros on a three-on-two rush with Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra. Gaborik passed across to Voros in the left circle and he beat Theodore to the short side.

The points were the first in the series for Voros and Gaborik, the latter of whom set Wild records for goals (42) and points (83) during the regular season but was shut down by Avalanche defensemen Adam Foote and Kurt Sauer when he wasn’t being thwarted by Theodore.

“Of course I wasn’t producing enough,” said Gaborik, who had six shots on goal Saturday and 25 in the series. “I wish I would have made the difference. But it was very tight out there. They did a great job defensively.

“Either it was tight or it was Theodore. Things didn’t work out like I wanted to. That’s the way it is. You just have to learn from this. It was a needed experience for myself and everybody in this room and you just got to move on.”

The Avalanche struck first for the sixth consecutive game when center Ben Guite scored a short-handed goal at 8:02 on a breakaway after Joe Sakic forced a Wild turnover.

Guite skated down the middle and beat Backstrom to the glove side for his first point of the series.

The Avalanche only scored two short-handed goals in the regular season and not since Nov. 30 in the 24th game when Milan Hejduk did it at San Jose.

“I thought we played a solid game, probably our best game of the series,” Theodore said. “We knew against these guys it was going to be tight.”

ETC.: The Avalanche will take Sunday off and practice Monday … Joe Sakic’s first-period assist was the 100th of his postseason career and gave him 184 playoff points, tying him with Bryan Trottier for ninth place on the all-time list … Avalanche defenseman Scott Hannan left the game for a few minutes after getting hit in the face with the puck in the second period but didn’t miss much time … The Wild made a number of lineup changes, the most significant putting in defenseman Nick Schultz, who underwent an appendectomy April 7 and missed the first five games of the series. Schultz replaced Sean Hill on the blue line and logged 16:11 in ice time. Also, forward Matt Foy replaced Benoit Pouliot.

• April 19, 2008

  11:13 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  weemoose writes:

  12 more!

• April 20, 2008

  7:53 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  discer writes:

  Great finish to a great series! Five of the six games could have gone either way. Av's defense was awesome! Looking forward to the next series with excitement! GO AVALANCHE!!

• April 20, 2008

  10:26 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  dilligaf writes:

  Don't want to duck anybody. That is why I will be rooting for the wings today. Any good hockey fan would look for to this match up. It will be a tough series but if we win it would be so sweeeeet!!!!

• April 20, 2008

  11:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  nosnivlers writes:

  was all the talk from the mild fans now??? They said they were gonna sweep!!! lmao.HEY HEY BYE BYE

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