Franzen helps Red Wings to triumph

The Detroit Red Wings’ Daniel Cleary, center left, celebrates with Johan Franzen, center right, after Franzen scored against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of the Western Conference semi-final hockey playoffs in Detroit on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Johan Franzen scored two goals and had an assist to help the Detroit Red Wings hold out the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in Game 1 of the NHL second-round playoffs on Thursday.
Franzen’s goal early in the second put Detroit ahead 4-1, but Colorado pulled within a goal by the end of the period.
The Avalanche pulled goalie Jose Theodore after he gave up four goals on 16 shots, then said they sent him to the team hotel because he was sick. Peter Budaj gave the Avalanche a chance to come back by stopping all 20 shots he faced.
Detroit’s Chris Osgood made 18 saves.
Paul Stastny scored midway through the first period to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.
Henrik Zetterberg tied the score a minute later, then Franzen factored in the next three goals by assisting on Dan Cleary’s goal and scoring twice for the first time in a playoff game.
John-Michael Liles scored at 5:17 of the second for Colorado, and Milan Hejduk scored late in the period to make it 4-3.
CANADIENS 4, FLYERS 3
At Monteal, Tom Kostopoulos scored 48 seconds into overtime to give Montreal the victory over Philadelphia in the opening game of their second-round series.
Kostopoulos his own rebound past Martin Biron shortly after a faceoff in Philadelphia’s zone for his third goal of the playoffs.
R.J. Umberger and Jim Dowd scored in the first to give Philadelphia a 2-0 lead. Andrei Kostitsyn and Alex Kovalev tied it at 2 in the second for Montreal, which won all four meetings between the two teams during the regular season.
Joffrey Lupul scored a power-play goal 19 seconds into the third to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead.
Kovalev Montreal even with 28.6 seconds remaining in regulation, scoring a power-play goal off a faceoff with goalie Carey Price pulled for an extra attacker.
Price 30 shots in the first playoff meeting between the teams in 19 years. Biron also made 30 saves.