Wow. Just Wow!

Goalies Chris Osgood and Colorado's Peter Budaj shake hands at the end of the game. (Caption and Photo: Detroit News)

From the Detroit News:

DENVER -- This time there was no Patrick Roy in net, and it was Denver rather than Joe Louis Arena.

This wasn't a Game 7, either, but a rather anticlimactic Game 4.

But the Red Wings hammered the Colorado Avalanche in a series-clinching game again, this time 8-2, to sweep the Western Conference semifinal series in four games.

And it was every bit the rout the final score indicated.

Johan Franzen led the way, scoring three goals, giving him nine for the series (Franzen has 11 in the playoffs).

The nine goals are a Red Wings record for a four-game series, breaking Gordie Howe's eight goals in seven games in 1949.

Franzen's 11 goals also set a Wings record for a playoff year. Peter Klima (1988, 10 goals), Sergei Fedorov (10 goals in 22 games, 1998) and Brett Hull (10 goals in 23 games, 2002) were the previous record-holders.

"Every time you get mentioned with him (Gordie Howe), it's a great honor," Franzen said. "I don't know what to say. I feel real lucky right now."

How good was Franzen in this series, and how ineffective were the Avalanche? The Avs also finished the series with nine goals.

"It's not often you see a player score like this, it's fun to be part of it," said Henrik Zetterberg, who had two goals and two assists Thursday. "I'm real happy for him. He's been working hard."

The Wings flew back to Detroit on Friday morning and await the winner of the Dallas-San Jose series. Dallas leads the series 3-1.

Further… from NHL.com:

Though two of the games ended 4-3, the series was rarely competitive — unlike the teams’ five meetings between 1996 and 2002, which were some of the hardest-fought pre-Final series in NHL history. This time, Detroit led after every period, trailed for less than eight minutes in the four games, and drove Avs starter Jose Theodore from the net in three of the four games, including this one.

[…]

Theodore gave up a bad goal 4:33 into the game to give the Red Wings an early lead. Mikael Samuelsson’s nothing-special slap shot from the top of right circle should have been stopped easily — but it went through Theodore’s pads and trickled into the net.

Colorado got a break when Holmstrom’s penalty for tripping in the offensive zone 84 seconds after Samuelsson’s goal gave the Avalanche a power play, and they wasted little time getting even. Joe Sakic’s passout from behind the net to the left of Osgood found Tyler Arnason, whose quick one-timer at 6:51 tied the score at 1-1 on the Avs’ first shot of the game. It was Colorado’s third power-play goal in its last five opportunities.

Then the bottom fell out amid a blizzard of highlight-film goals.

You can see those highlights here, and they’re MOST definitely worth watching, especially Zetterberg’s goal at 14:15 of the second period. You’ll not see a prettier goal for as long as you live... and I’ll guarantee that. (Note: I’m not going to post anymore NHL video, coz I think the clips are doing wonky things to the blog. We’ve had complaints…)

Last night’s game will be remembered in Deetroit for a long, long time. It’s a rare thing to see that much talent on the ice at one time, and even rarer to see one team exhibit such complete, utter domination over another in the NHL today. The Game 7 and Patrick Roy references in the DetNews article quoted above are all about the game I talked about here… and which I mentioned to SN1 on the phone last evening after the Wings scored their fifth goal. Which, apropos of nothing, leads me to believe I might have a future as a hockey color announcer, after a couple more seasons… mainly coz the Versus guys mentioned the same thing, albeit several minutes later.

Speaking of SN1 and the phone… it’s our habit to exchange phone calls as the games progress, usually after each goal…by either team. So, it’s a good thing both of us have the same carrier, with the “talk all ya want” option on our contracts, coz we certainly burnt up the airwaves last night. And the both of us were in the same sort of mood, too… that mood being “giddy.” Great good fun, that was. We ran out of superlatives by the start of the third period and were reduced to simply saying “wow” whenever the Wings did something remarkable, which, in case ya didn’t notice, Gentle Reader, was often.

So. The Wings are half-way there. It looks like Dallas is next, and the Stars just have to be wondering how they’re gonna deal with these Wings. The next series is gonna be a lot tougher than the Avs were. Dallas is healthy and Turco is, as noted day before yesterday, hotter than hot. Hot goalies have sent the Red Wings off to the golf course more than once in the playoffs in recent years, Jean-Sebastien Giguere being the most recent. But this year?

I don’t think so.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: SN1 sends along some cell-phone photos (I think... given the pics' small size) taken at his graduation from USAF’s Advanced Maintenance and Munitions Officers School (AMMOS). Pictured above are daughter-in-law Erma, grandson Sean (looking quite spiffy in his suit, nu?), The First Mrs. Pennington, and The Captain looking spiffy hissownself, in mess dress.

Taken a couple of weeks ago, on or near Nellis AFB in Lost Wages, NV.