DET vs COL

Denver – In the end, Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk had to be feeling like Butch and Sundance.

Down to their last few rounds, with little time to re-load before making one last charge out against Those Who Lurked.

It was a massacre, all right, just like the end of Butch and the Sundance Kid's fictional last stand. Whenever Sakic or any Colorado Avalanche forward tried to make any kind of charge, they were overrun, spit up and chewed out by a Detroit Red Wings machine. Considering all the Swedes who ran them over, perhaps that machine was a Volvo.

Every goal scored in Detroit's 8-2 destruction of the Avalanche was scored by a Swede. This is the organization that used to be so well known for its "Russian Five", but now it's the Swedish Great Eight.

The Game 4 romp tonight at the Pepsi Center cleaned up the sweep for Detroit, which will move on to the Western Conference finals against either Dallas or San Jose.

Johan Franzen scored his second hat trick of the series, and finished with nine goals overall – or as much as the Avalanche scored as a team in the four games.

"You have to give them credit," Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said. "They've got a great hockey team over there."

Colorado crushed

There was a weird vibe in the Avalanche dressing room when this was over. Some had the looks like they'd just sat through a Bela Lugosi triple-feature, or maybe a Real World marathon – both are just as horrific. Others had a "well, what did we really expect out here tonight, us playing without five top forwards and all" look.

It was a kind of half shock, half relief vibe that this carnage, at least, was over.

The Avs played without five of their top nine forwards, including Peter Forsberg, who again had groin issues.

Now that his season was over, Forsberg went into a little more detail about what has ailed him. The troublesome right ankle that has bothered him much of the last two years still gives him trouble, he said, and even when it doesn't he tends to overcompensate with his left skate, which then tends to produce groin pulls.

That's what happened a lot in his brief stay again with Colorado, and unless he can "get the foot totally figured out" and soon, Forsberg strongly indicated that he'll have no choice but to hang up his skates for good.

"No matter what, I'll know that I tried," he said.

The Red Wings can thank their lucky stars they hired Hakan Andersson as their director of European scouting. Andersson, based in Sweden, obviously is having success finding players there. While Detroit got every goal in Game 4 from a Swedish player and have eight Swedes overall, the Avalanche has had one Swede in their 13 years in Denver – Forsberg.

One lesson learned in defeat perhaps, therefore, is to beef up the Stockholm scouting bureau a little more.

Detroit gets some down time

The Red Wings are glad to "get a few days off", star Henrik Zetterberg said, but the way the team is playing, why want to wait?

Detroit put on an absolute clinic in Game 4, playing with such utter and complete confidence that it really did have the feel that a clinic was going on. There just never seemed any danger whatsoever that whatever Detroit wanted to do offensively, it would do.

Post-series Notebook

Detroit management spent much of Thursday meeting with another potentially star Swede, Fabian Brunnstrom. The forward, a free agent and considered one of the best players in the world not in the NHL, will spend the next couple of days hanging around the Wings to see if it might be a good fit for him. The question might seem: are you crazy? What better fit for a young Swede than this team? … Avs captain Joe Sakic, who had two assists in Game 4, said he will take some time over the summer to decide whether to come back for a 20th season… Avs winger Ryan Smyth had a broken bone in his foot after blocking a shot in Game 2, by Brian Rafalski. Smyth wanted to play anyway, but doctors told him the break would multiply if he did… Avs goalie Jose Theodore is now 2-17 in second-round playoff games… Detroit veteran Chris Chelios did not play because of a "lower body" injury, but it's not considered serious.