Pavel Datsyuk scored two goals and goaltender Chris Osgood made 30 saves as the Detroit Red Wings moved within a game of the Western Conference Finals with a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 Tuesday night. The Red Wings lead the series 3-0 with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday night. Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg also scored for the Red Wings, which won its seventh-straight game against the Avalanche this season.

Undoubtedly boosted by the return of Peter Forsberg and a return to Denver, the Avalanche opened the game strong and scored the game's first goal when Cody McLeod -- he of the ill-fated "octopus taunt" prior to Game 2 -- deflected a shot from the faceoff circle under the pads of Osgood.

The lead would last only seven minutes before the Red Wings scored twice in a span of 58 seconds. Datsyuk scored his first of the night off a nice feed from the slot from Zetterberg while Detroit enjoyed a power play. Brett Lebda's perfect cross-ice pass to Franzen on a broken play resulted in "The Mule"'s NHL-leading 8th goal of the post season.

Detroit increased the lead to 3-1 in the second period with Datsyuk's second goal, which was the direct result of an ill-advised check from Peter Forsberg that left the Avalanche out of defensive position -- and a wide open Datsyuk. Datsyuk corraled the lose puck from in front of Jose Theodore and quickly potted it into the empty net.

Colorado narrowed the game to 3-2 just over 90 seconds later when Andrew Brunette deflected a point shot from defenseman John-Michael Liles at 8:08.

A high-stick to the face of Mikael Samuelsson -- who lost a tooth on the play -- by Forsberg resulted in a double-minor and Detroit's 4th goal of the evening. Datsyuk feathered a perfect cross-ice pass to Zetterberg at the end of a give-and-go to give the Red Wings a 2-0 edge.

the Avalanche got the game close again in the third due to sloppy play by the Red Wings that resulted in back-to-back penalties for too many men on the ice. Detroit was able to kill off the first but weren't so fortunate on the second, when Brunette scored his second on the man advantage on a rebound in front of Osgood.

The goal, however, was the only one Osgood would surrender in the period. Osgood was stellar from then on, with his best stop coming with under two minutes remaining when his right pad toe save on David Jones kept the score at 4-3.