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Silenced by an OT sniper

Nobody in NHL history is more clutch in playoff overtimes than Avalanche lifer Joe Sakic. The Colorado captain scored his eighth career playoff overtime winner in overtime Wednesday night to lift the Avalanche to a 3-2 victory over the Wild in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

By MICHAEL RUSSO , Star Tribune

Last update: April 10, 2008 - 12:56 PM

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AVALANCHE LEADS SERIES 1-0

Colorado 3, Wild 2 (OT)

Game 2: 8 p.m. Friday • Xcel • FSN

SERIES AT A GLANCE

GAME 1: Colorado 3, Wild 2 (OT)

Recap: Joe Sakic provides his usual: an OT winner.

GAME 2: Wild 3, Colorado 2 (OT)

Recap: Keith Carney's OT goal evens the series.

GAME 3: Wild 3, Colorado 2 (OT)

Recap: Pierre-Marc Bouchard finishes off a Wild-dominated OT.

GAME 4: Colorado 5, Wild 1

Recap: The game was rough and the Wild took a tumble.

GAME 5: Colorado 3, Wild 2

Recap: The Wild never led. Sound familiar?

GAME 6: Colorado 2, Wild 1

Recap: No lead, no Game 7, no second round again.

More from Minnesota Wild

Nobody in NHL history is more clutch in playoff overtimes than Avalanche lifer Joe Sakic.

The Colorado captain scored his eighth career playoff overtime winner, the most in NHL history, with 8:49 left in overtime Wednesday night to lift the Avalanche to a 3-2 victory over the Wild in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center.

"It's a tough loss, but we look at how we played," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "I thought we played really well. The intensity was at its best, players were at their best. That's the playoffs. You get a break here or there, and you turn out to be in great shape."

And a break was bound to fall Colorado's way at some point, and it finally did when Ruslan Salei's point shot deflected off a skate and right to Sakic for the easy goal into an open net.

"The puck was laying right there; it came right to me," said Sakic, who scored his 83rd career playoff goal (most among active players) and 19th career playoff winning goal (fourth all-time). "So I was pretty fortunate to be in the right spot."

The Wild was trying to rally from a 2-0 postseason deficit to win for the second time in team history. Instead, the Wild fell to 2-4 in playoff overtimes, 1-3 at home, and fell to 3-8 in all-time playoff home games.

Lemaire pinned the goal on rookie James Sheppard.

"It's funny. We talked about this just prior to the game -- exactly the same thing," Lemaire said. "Defenseman moves up, he's checking a player toward the blue line, the centerman cannot leave the front of the net.

"[Sheppard] just kept following up. They send the puck to the net. Two-on-one, they get the rebound. In playoffs, details are huge. We're facing a team that knows all about that."

In the third period, the Wild, which had outshot the Avalanche 11-2 in the first period and 20-7 after two periods, rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the score 2-2. But Minnesota was fortunate to even get to OT.

After Mikko Koivu and Todd Fedoruk scored goals 3:21 apart within the first 6 1/2 minutes of the third, it was all Colorado. The Avs had four golden chances to pull out a victory in regulation.

• Referee Don VanMassenhoven waved off a David Jones goal with 5:48 left. Jones was crosschecked into the crease by Martin Skoula, then got up and kicked the puck in with his left skate.

• With 3 1/2 minutes left, former St. Cloud State star Jeff Finger had a deflected shot hit the post.

• With 2:27 left, referee Mike Hasenfratz awarded Colorado a penalty shot after defenseman Keith Carney covered his hand over the puck in the crease. In the first-ever postseason penalty shot against the Wild, Ryan Smyth -- who scored on 75 percent of his shootout attempts this season -- was facing the NHL's worst shootout goalie, Niklas Backstrom.

But on the penalty shot, Backstrom stretched out his right pad to deny Smyth.

"It was just a read and react, and I did the best I could," Backstrom said.

• With a minute left, Milan Hejduk rang the crossbar.

In overtime, Jose Theodore turned away Brent Burns after a great move to turn a 2-on-1 into a last second 1-on-0.

Brian Rolston played a huge part in the Wild's comeback. On a 2-on-2, Koivu slid right and, with Rolston tied up with defenseman Scott Hannan in front, Koivu's centering feed deflected by Theodore off Hannan's skate.

Then, on a power play, Rolston leaped into the air to save an Avs' clearing attempt.

Seconds later, it went from Rolston to Pierre-Marc Bouchard to Koivu to Petteri Nummelin to Fedoruk and in for the tying goal. Fedoruk got the puck alone in front of Theodore, and like a center posting up to the hoop, he whipped a backhand just inside the post.

It was Fedoruk's first point in his 20th career playoff game.

But Fedoruk said: "Little mistakes are big in the playoffs. We have to try to eliminate those and not chase the [entire] game."