Avalanche Buries Wings

Detroit
Red Wings

"Sometimes you score a bunch of goals and never get a game-winner," Forsberg said, "so I'll take it."

Joe Sakic, Stephane Yelle and Shjon Podein also scored for the Avalanche, who advance to the conference finals against either the Stars or Sharks. Dallas leads that series 3-1.

"We had a tough one last year against Dallas," Forsberg said. "Whoever we play, San Jose or Dallas, we have to be ready. We have a lot of guys who are really hungry this year, and I think it shows."

One of the biggest disappointments for the Red Wings was Steve Yzerman, who failed to score a goal in the playoffs.

"You never enjoy losing," he said. "We were close, just not quite good enough. That is what is disappointing. The difference was they were able to put the puck in the net. Nobody really scored a ton, well maybe Forsberg. But our top guys didn't. We just didn't put the puck in the net."

Other key to the series was Patrick Roy, who stole Game 4 for Colorado. He clearly outplayed his counterpart Chris Osgood.

"Right now I feel like I'm moving very well in the net," Roy said. "It's probably the best I've felt all year. The guys in front of me have been very sharp, and I feel like we're playing really smart hockey. We don't make it tough on ourselves. If we have to dump the puck in, we dump the puck in. We're doing the small things that make the difference between winning and losing."

"We want to get on a roll," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "We feel that with the depth and the talent that we have, if we can work all our lines in, it's like an avalanche."