Struggling Wings Beat Avs

Perhaps their rivalry with Colorado isn't the most bitter in the NHL anymore. Nevertheless, the Detroit Red Wings are hoping that a 3-2 win Saturday afternoon over the Avalanche can jump-start the struggling Stanley Cup champions.

Nicklas Lidstrom's tiebreaking, power-play goal with 6:59 remaining made the difference as the Red Wings won for just the third time in their last 11 games.

"I thought we played hard for 60 minutes today," Lidstrom said. "We haven't done that for awhile. I think we can build on this win today."

Steve Yzerman and Martin Lapointe also scored goals for the Red Wings, who came into the contest only 2-7-1 in their previous 10 outings.

"It's a concern, but not something that will carry on forever," Yzerman said. "A lot of good things have been happening. We have enough offensive people that if you just stick with it, it's just a matter of time before the puck will go into the net."

Adam Foote got two assists, on tip-ins by Claude Lemieux and Peter Forsberg, for the Avalanche, who had won four of their last five road games and are 1-1 against Detroit this season.

"I think overall we played pretty well toay," Forsberg said. "It's just a tough loss with the goal at the end of the game like that."

The Red Wings had a 5-on-3 advantage when Lidstrom broke a 2-2 tie with a hard drive from center ice just inside the blue line. The shot got past Marc Denis, who suffered his first career loss (1-1-1) in place of the injured Patrick Roy.

"I was really screened," Denis said. "(Brendan) Shanahan was right up on me. I guess Lidstrom just made a great shot high up on the blocker side."

Detroit got the two-man edge when, with Colorado's Joe Sakic already in the box for a hooking penalty, referee Terry Gregson whistled the Avalanche for having too many men on the ice.

"It was just a line change," Avalanche coach Bob Hartley said. "Most of the time it's not called and today they called it. It's a line change you see frequently in this league and they just called it."

Lidstrom's game-winner made Detroit 2-for-7 on its power play. Colorado, which had scored nine power-play goals in its last seven games, was 0-for-5 with the man advantage.

Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood had 27 saves and Denis stopped 28 shots in his fifth NHL game. The Avalanche, who outshot Detroit 27-23 through two periods, had just two shots in the third.

There were no fights and just a few minor pushing and shoving incidents between the teams.

"It was a pretty emotional game; we didn't see any stupid stuff," Hartley said. "You can feel the heat between these teams. I'm sure the referee has strict guidelines with the history of the two teams. Any time they play you're going to see a lot of power play opportunities."

Igor Larionov set up Yzerman's 17th goal on a power play 13:17 into the first, the only score of the period. Larionov skated the puck all around the outside arc of the left circle before backhanding a pass to Yzerman, who fired a shot that went between Denis and the inside post.

The Avalanche took a 2-1 lead early in the second period when a pair of shots from Foote were deflected past Osgood. Lemieux tipped Foote's blast from the left side into the net at 1:17, then Forsberg did the same just 23 seconds later when Foote fired from the right point.

Lapointe got the Red Wings even with 3:05 left in the second when he planted himself in front of the crease and flipped the rebound of Doug Brown's right circle shot over Denis.

"The puck was bouncing around my feet. At first I couldn't find it," Lapointe said. "I just tried to whack at it. (Denis) tried to catch it but didn't. It was a pretty lucky goal."

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