Red Wings Soar Over Avalanche

Now that Claude Lemieux no longer wears a Colorado Avalanche jersey, some animosity seems to be missing when the Detroit Red Wings face their longtime nemesis.

"They're not as villainous as they used to be," Red Wings forward Darren McCarty said after scoring the go-ahead goal in Detroit's 5-3 victory over Colorado on Friday night.

Even without Lemieux, long considered the most-hated man in Detroit, fans can still count on a spirited 60 minutes between the Red Wings and Avalanche, who have met in the playoffs four of the past five seasons.

"When you play Colorado, you always look forward to it because you're playing against some of the best players in the world," McCarty said. "It's more of a challenge that way in the hockey aspect now."

Detroit, playing the first of two road games, trailed 3-2 heading to the third period before McCarty and Holmstrom scored less than three minutes apart to seize the lead.

"We haven't played the top teams that much, at least standings-wise," Yzerman said. "We've lost to a lot of teams that are sub-.500, so it's very encouraging that we beat one of the better clubs in the league. Hopefully it spurs us on to more consistent and better play."

After two straight ties that featured disputed goals, the Avalanche had only themselves to blame. They missed a handful of shots at an open net, committed turnovers in their own zone and killed only two o Detroit's four power plays.

"When we were sharp at the beginning of the year, our penalty killing was good, our power play was doing well and we were sharp 5-on-5," Avalanche forward Dave Reid said. "Now, we're just sloppy, and we've got to get rid of that."

An elbowing penalty on Chris Drury 23 seconds into the third sparked Detroit's comeback as Holmstrom scored on a centering pass from Sergei Fedorov to tie the game at 3.

McCarty, an admitted Denver Broncos fan, gave the Red Wings the lead for good 2:21 later when he picked up a loose puck in the slot and flipped a shot over diving goalie Patrick Roy.

"Every now and then, I get a pretty one, but usually not," McCarty said. "Like my old man used to say, `They don't ask how. They ask how many.' I'll take 20 of them falling down."

Colorado, which was 15-0-2 when leading after two periods, had a power play midway through the third but could not get any of its three shots past Manny Legace. The Red Wings goalie stopped 14 shots in the period and finished with 33 saves.

Yzerman put the game out of reach when he beat Roy from the slot after Colorado forward Milan Hejduk failed to clear the puck.

"Every time we turned the puck over, they made us pay," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "We have to come back to basics in our zone and we don't want to overhandle the puck."

Roy, who was 1-4 against Detroit last year, finished with 20 saves.

The Avalanche, who have eliminated Detroit from the playoffs each of the last two seasons, went ahead 3-2 late in the second period when Greg de Vries flipped in a shot from a tough angle for his second goal in two games and his third of the year.

The Red Wings were able to recover for their sixth win in the last seven regular-season games against Colorado.

"I'd gladly trade it for the playoffs," Yzerman said. "Regular season isn't the end all, I guess."

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