Wed Apr 16 01:18:35 2008

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Denver Crush: Avs destroy Wild in Game 4 win

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Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Tyler Arnason posted a goal and an assist, as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Minnesota Wild, 5-1, in Game 4 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series at the Pepsi Center.

Ruslan Salei had a goal and an assist, while Jordan Leopold collected two assists for the Avalanche, who evened this best-of-seven series. Jose Theodore stopped 24-of-25 shots to earn the victory.

Mikko Koivu scored the lone goal for the Wild, who will host Game 5 on Thursday. Niklas Backstrom allowed five goals on 29 shots before he was replaced by Josh Harding at the start of the third period. Harding made seven saves the rest of the way.

The Avalanche erupted for three goals in the first period.

Andrew Brunette opened the scoring at 4:01 when he came across the middle and deflected Salei's wrister from the left point up and over Backstrom.

An errant clearing attempt by Minnesota's Keith Carney found the stick of Wojtek Wolski, who ripped a shot from the right circle that beat Backstrom on the stick side at 5:37.

A bad turnover by the Wild in the neutral zone resulted in the Avalanche taking a 3-0 lead. Arnason collected the disc, walked across the blue line and launched a slap shot that sailed past the glove of Backstrom with 8:52 remaining before the first intermission.

The game got a little chippy in the middle stanza, as a frustrated Wild team took a slew of penalties.

While up a man, Salei gathered a feed from Arnason and fired a slap shot from the left point that made it 4-0 at 7:42.

Colorado struck again on the power play with 3:46 remaining in the second. Ryan Smyth carried the puck down the right side and drove hard to the net before sliding a backhand pass to Milan Hejduk for an easy tap-in.

Koivu notched a short-handed goal at the 3:11 mark of the third, but it was far too little for the Wild.

Game Notes

Colorado had dropped four straight playoff games on home ice...All of Minnesota's nine goals in the series have come in the third period or overtime...Koivu has a four-game goal-scoring streak...The previous six playoff meetings between these clubs were decided by a 3-2 score...Colorado finished 2-for-13 on the power play, while Minnesota went 0-for-5.