Johan Franzen scored two goals and added an assist to help lead the Red Wings to a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinal series that kicked off in Joe Louis Arena Thursday night. The Avalanche were without Peter Forsberg, who is nursing a groin injury, and had goaltender Jose Theodore chased early in the second period.

The Avalanche struck first in the game when Paul Stastny ripped a quick shot past Chris Osgood between the circles to give Colorado a 1-0 lead 8:53 into the game. Detroit wasted little time in knotting the score when Henrik Zetterberg finished off a give-and-go with Pavel Datsyuk to tie the game 1-1.

Dan Cleary scored his first of the playoffs when his shot from the right circle deflected up above of Theodore and bounced off the back of the netminder's leg before finding the back of the net.

Franzen scored his first of the game on a beautiful deflection while on a Detroit power play to push the Red Wings' advantage to 3-1 before the end of the first period.

Franzen pushed the lead to 4-1 early in the second period when his blast from the top of the right faceoff circle blew by Theodore, ending the goaltender's night. Theodore, who Avalanche officials sent back to the team hotel because of a bout with the flu, stopped 12 of 16 shots. He was replaced by Peter Budaj, who stopped all 20 shots he faced.

The Avalanche got back into the game with a pair of goals in the second period, the first coming off the stick of defenseman John-Michael Liles at 5:17. Milan Hejduk capped off a beautiful 3-on-2 rush to cut Detroit's lead to 4-3.

Osgood shut the door in the third period -- his best save coming with 8.4 seconds left -- and stopped 18 of 21 shots.