Red Wings-Avalanche: Detroit Buries Colorado in Game 2

Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said his team needed to play a complete game in order to win on Saturday afternoon.  He said that only 60 hard minutes would satisfy him.

The Red Wings did not disappoint their coach, beating the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings played their best game of the playoffs so far on Saturday. Detroit forward Johan Franzen had his first career hat trick to lead the scoring.

Chris Osgood was once again the "Wizard" in net, stopping 19 shots. The defense stifled the Colorado forwards by blocking shots and playing aggressively. 

Colorado Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore was once again replaced in the second period after goals by Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, and Henrik Zetterberg made the score 4-0.  

After the goaltender change, the Joe was rockin' after Darren McCarty and Cody McCormick dropped the gloves and traded punches in the series' first fight.

Franzen, who opened the scoring in the first period, completed his hat trick late in the game when he and Zetterberg paired up for a rebound goal past Peter Budaj.  Ian Laperriere scored the lone goal for the Avalanche.

The Colorado Avalanche have not been 100 percent healthy so far in the series, but after Saturday's nightmare, they are surely looking forward to the two days of rest before coming home to Denver.

Theodore was brilliant in the first round against the Minnesota Wild, but he has not looked like himself of late.  He couldn't possibly still be sick, could he? 

Colorado coach Joel Quenneville says that he will not be making a goaltender change for Game Three. However, after the horrid play of Theodore,  I would not be surprised to see Quenneville play Budaj instead.  

As for the Avalanche, maybe they had cursed themselves for Game Two when Cody McLeod picked up an octopus in the warm-ups and tauntingly shook it towards the Detroit bench before throwing it towards the Colorado dressing room.

The Hockey Gods may have frowned on the incident and punished the Avalanche, because that display of intimidation was their strongest showing of the night.