#2...Minnesota 3, Colorado 2 (OT)...High Anxiety

After last night's game, the second installment of overtime, fans of both team have to wonder out loud "how much more can my heart take?" At this rate, I'll have to hook up a car battery to my heart via jumper cables.
Again, what a clash. More up and down action, overt physicality (The Demitra hit on Peter Forsberg may have drawn the biggest response the entire night), great saves, a semi-breakaway, etc. It makes for great drama (and stress!) how it seems like there is a constant ebb and flow of momentum, that it seems like neither team can emerge with a vice grip on the play. For instance I thought Colorado controlled the play for the most part; they would gain the offensive zone and just keep the puck in; and if the puck got out, usually a Wild player got pasted into the boards by one, sometimes two, Avs. Even then, Colorado would block a shot or two if they ever got pinned down in their zone (The Avalanche blocked 23 shots last night.)
Peter Forsberg is emerging as a force now; aside from his "style of play", Forsberg is producing now- a nice goal late in the first, and also an assist. His clashes with Brent Burns are becoming epic, but the beauty of Forsberg's game is that the harder you play him, the more effective he is. He's not like other players in that aspect. You can hit him, cross check him, pancake him in the boards, but its not going to stop him- in fact there is a greater chance that whoever is on Forsberg detail will get sucked into some sort of retaliation, and perhaps a penalty. We all know the "act", so I think as this series goes on Burns, Johnsson, etc. have to create a distinction between being effective and going too far; Burns has gone to the box twice already this series due to Forsberg run-ins, and considering how much the blueline corps is leaning on Burns to be The Guy, he, and the team, and Wild Nation, can't afford to lose him, even for two minutes.
If Forsberg isn't got Burns on his back, then he has to contend with Mikko Koivu, who was far and away the best Minnesota player on the ice yesterday. Two goals and an assist so far, and also won 11 of 20 faceoffs. Patrick Reusse has a column talking about how Koivu is becoming a star.
But now heading to Colorado, the question lingers about Branko Radivojevic's injury. He had to be helped off the ice after getting knocked down, but gutted it out and kept playing although there was a noticeable limp from time to time as he went back to the bench. This could be a key injury; Radio is a key cog in a line that will see an insane amount of time now that Colorado bench boss Joel Quenneville will have the last change and be able to dictate the matchups. If Radio can't play, then someone will have to fill in, or that checking line will have to be split up.
I think a thing worth mentioning was how Colorado used the center of the offensive zone; for example Peter Forsberg's goal. He came down the wing, and cut across to the middle of the zone (around the top of the circles), and whistled a shot through a screen, against the grain, past Nik Backstrom (another great effort from him) for the goal. I saw this happen a few more times; this is something to work on, considering how shaky Backstrom can be when he gets caught moving laterally.

But for now, everyone gets a few days to try and lower their heart rate.

-About the Johnsson hooking call at the end, I thought it was dicey, considering Smyth was already falling. Adrian Dater of the Denver Post thinks the fans at the X were being babies about it. The funniest part are the comments; I've been told that Dater is extremely disliked by Avs fans.

-What series is this guy watching?