Sauer seems to have knack for postseason goals in home state

There were white pieces of fabric lying across the back of every seat inside Xcel Energy Center. The Wild announced to arriving fans that these were "rally towels," although it looked suspiciously as if the St. Paul marketeers were going for the same effect when "Homer Hankies" have appeared in the Metrodome.

The Wild also broke out an inspirational five-minute videotape on the scoreboard screens. The theme was "Fight to the End," a slogan also used last April for the playoffs.

Apparently, the staff member in charge of slogans figured this one was too good to be wasted on a five-game dismissal by the Anaheim Ducks.

The fans cheered mightily at the highlights of the Wild winning the tradition-rich Northwest Division with last week's victory over Calgary. And then they really went nuts when Wes Walz, a hero of the 2003 playoff upset of Colorado, showed up to offer the "Let's play hockey" preamble to the Wild's third excursion into the playoffs in its seven seasons of existence.

Jacques Lemaire's lads looked properly inspired in the first period, dominating for the entire 20 minutes. Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom could have stretched out in the crease for a snooze at his end of the ice, while Colorado's Jose Theodore was as busy as a cardinal at the crack of the dawn.

It was a scoreless first period, and yet the crowd sent the Wild off the ice with an ovation more fitting for a two-goal lead.

The two-goal lead did show up in the second period, but it belonged to the Avalanche. The first goal came from defenseman Kurt Sauer, who was raised in an athletic family in Sartell, Minn. Sauer directed a pass from Joe Sakic over Backstrom at 1 minute, 29 seconds of the second.

Much later, after Sakic's goal at 11:11 of overtime gave the visitors a 3-2 victory and turned the arena to stone silence, Sauer was answering questions in the Colorado locker room.

"Your only previous overtime goal came the last time you were in a playoff game here, right?" someone asked.

Sauer paused and said: "I know it was in that series [Anaheim-Wild], but I can't remember which game it was."

Answer: Game 2.

"Then, that's right," Sauer said. "My other playoff goal was the last time I played here."

"It was an unbelievable pass from Joe -- especially after just looking at it on tape," Sauer said. "He's the guy, when he has the puck and you have a chance to go to the net, you better do it."

Sauer was asked about scoring a second playoff goal in his home state.

"It's always good to come home and play in front of the family," he said. "But, honestly, it makes no difference to me where I score a goal. I don't score enough to care if it's here, in Colorado, or in Timbuktu."

Sauer said only his parents and one sister were in attendance. "It's a Wednesday night," he said. "The rest of them have kids, so it's an early wakeup call [this morning]. Friday night will be different. They all are going to be here."

The Avalanche played its six defensemen in relatively equal amounts in regulation time: Adam Foote (23:03), Jeff Finger (21:41), Sauer (20:46), Scott Hannan (18:54), Ruslan Salei (18:52) and John-Michael Liles (14:51).

By contrast, the Wild is without Nick Schultz and Kurtis Foster, meaning Kim Johnsson was on the ice for 28:31 and Brent Burns for 26:45 in regulation.

This discrepancy was pointed out to Sauer, and he was asked if it could have an impact on the series.

"It's always nice for everyone to get playing time," he said. "But this is way early in the series, and the Wild are going to come out even more fired up on Friday. We're going to have to play a whole lot better than we did tonight."