Wings’ Top Two Lines Finish Sweep in Style

DENVER — Johan Franzen broke two club records and Henrik Zetterberg scored while falling down and with his back turned to the net.

The Red Wings, in short, produced goals every which way possible: Rushing the net, firing from the blue line, on power plays and shorthanded; utterly, completely and sweepingly ending their Western Conference semifinal against the Avalanche Thursday night in Game 4 with an 8-2 victory. It’s the second straight time the Wings have advanced to the third round; they away await the winner of the Stars-Sharks series. The Stars take a 3-1 lead into tonight’s game at San Jose.

The Wings, on the other hand, will get a few days’ rest thanks to several outstanding performances Thursday. Franzen produced his second hat trick in three games to net nine goals for the series, topping Gordie Howe’s record of seven goals in one playoff series set over seven games against Montreal in 1949.

"Every time you get mentioned the same time as him it’s just a great honor," Franzen said. "I feel really lucky right now. Today, they kind of gave up, I think, after 4-1, so we got a couple of freebies there. But we played real good, every game I think we worked hard for each other and scored on our chances."

Franzen also set a franchise record with 11 playoff goals in one year. He was aware how close he was to both records before the game even began, having spent a little time in the locker room perusing the game notes. Franzen’s torrid pace — he has 24 goals since March 2 — has taught that teammates love a guy who scores, but not a guy who brags.

"I’ve got to be careful what I say," Franzen said, smiling. "I can’t say anything that could seem a little bit cocky in here."

Back in March, Franzen broke Howe’s record for game-winning goals in one month with six.

"Good for him," Mike Babcock said. "If you’re going to break records, you might as well break Gordie Howe’s."

Zetterberg had a pair of goals and assists to notch a career high with four playoff points; Mikael Samuelsson added a third-period goal to his first-period one, and Tomas Holmstrom rounded out the scoring for Detroit. Pavel Datsyuk had three assists and Nicklas Lidstrom and Jiri Hudler each had two helpers.

"They are deep throughout their lineup and they really played well as a team," Colorado captain Joe Sakic said. "Every player was going, and they exposed us out there. They were great."

Chris Osgood made 29 saves total after seeing just five shots in the first period, and was beaten only by Tyler Arnason and John-Michael Liles.

"I thought Ozzie made some saves for us, didn’t have a ton of work, but he made some saves," Babcock said.

Injuries to Peter Forsberg, Ryan Smyth, Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski left the Avs decimated, and another dismal performance by Jose Theodore did the rest.

Earlier in the day Babcock, discussing the Wings’ scoring depth, pointed out that "the second power play unit might be better than the first power play unit, and the second line might be better than the first line, and that’s what you want this time of year — the more people you have scoring, especially big bodies, the better off you are."

In the first period, it was a hard call to decide which of Detroit’s top two lines was better. Second-liner Mikael Samuelsson struck at 4:32. Taking a pass from Andreas Lilja, a last-minute replacement for Chris Chelios, who has a leg injury but who should be ready for the next round, Samuelsson hammered a shot from the top of the right circle. Theodore got a piece of the puck, but not enough to stop it from sliding into the net. Arnason prompted a 1-1 tie when he scored on a power play at 6:51, but the Wings’ top line responded at 18:34. Zetterberg rushed up the left side and deftly passed to the middle, where Holmstrom one-timed the puck for his second goal of the playoffs.

Franzen made it 3-1 with 38.4 seconds remaining in the period, scoring off a rush with Valtteri Filppula.

"We got rewarded late in the first period — we got two quick goals and I think that set them back a little bit and it gave us confidence," Lidstrom said. "I thought once we came out for that second period, I thought we took the game over."

The Wings went up by three goals 2:15 into the second period thanks to the first power play unit. Lidstrom passed to Zetterberg, who dropped to one knee as he unwound a slap shot that clanked in off a post as replacement goalie Peter Budaj was screened by Holmstrom.

"I don’t think it mattered who they had in net with how we were playing," Osgood said. "We scored some unbelievable goals. Their goalies really had no chance whatsoever on some of them. Mule is playing unbelievable. It’s just nice to sit back and watch it and enjoy."

At 5:45, Zetterberg scored his second, somehow managing to catch the puck even though he was off his feet and couldn’t see the net.

"I took the shot and I saw the puck came out for a rebound, but I kind of lost my balance," Zetterberg said. "I just hoped for the best and got a pretty good hit on it."

Zetterberg set up Franzen’s second of the night as the Wings scored off another rush while shorthanded midway through the second period, and Franzen scored his third when he tipped Lidstrom’s shot with 2:45 left in the second period, drawing cheers from the hundreds of Wings fans scattered among the crowd.