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The Colorado Avalanche is getting ready to make its way to San Jose.
The fourth-seeded Avalanche will open the Western Conference semifinals against
the second-seeded Sharks at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday night.
The matchup was set up late Monday when the No. 6 Calgary Flames defeated the No. 3 Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in overtime in Game 7 of their quarterfinal series. Calgary will meet the No. 1 Detroit Red Wings.
"For us, I don't think it really matters who we play," Avalanche right
wing Milan Hejduk said earlier in the day. "We want to win the Stanley
Cup, so we have to beat everybody anyway."
It should be an interesting series for Teemu Selanne, who spent parts of three
seasons with the Sharks - he played against the Avalanche in the 2002 conference
semifinals - and left as a free agent last summer to sign with Colorado.
"They have a lot of new faces," he said. "They were cleaning
house pretty good and adding new players - a lot of young guys - so it's not
a big deal (playing against them).
"Of course, I have a lot of great memories from there, but when you go
to the playoffs you don't think about those things."
The Sharks overcame a poor start to win the Pacific Division with a 43-21-12-6
record and 104 points, a 31-point improvement from last season, when they missed
the playoffs. They knocked off the St. Louis Blues in five games in the first
round.
"San Jose has surprised everybody," Selanne said. "They play
hard, and they're a good skating team. I think (coach) Ronnie Wilson has done
a great job there to get everybody going.
"We've been talking all the time that it doesn't really matter who we play
against. We have to find our 'A' game, and that's all that would matter. It's
going to be a good challenge."
The Avalanche went 2-1-1-0 against the Sharks in the regular season and defeated
them in two previous postseason meetings - rallying to win in seven games in
the 2002 conference semifinals and taking a 1999 quarterfinal series in six
games.
The Sharks have been especially tough at home, where they posted a 24-8-7-2
record during the season and outscored the Blues 7-2 in three postseason victories.
"But our team has been really good all year on the road," Selanne
said. "It's good to have that confidence. A lot of times we played better
on the road. I think for this team it doesn't matter where we start."
The Avalanche can expect to have a more difficult time scoring against goalie
Evgeni Nabokov than it did Dallas' Marty Turco. Nabokov went 31-19-8 in the
regular season with nine shutouts, a 2.20 goals-against average and .923 save
percentage. Against the Blues, Nabokov recorded a 1.56 average, one shutout
and a .937 save percentage.
The Sharks went 3-for-31 on power plays against St. Louis but killed 21 of 22
penalties, with former Avalanche center Mike Ricci helping in the latter area.
Center Patrick Marleau was San Jose's top scorer with 28 goals and 57 points
during the season and led the team against the Blues with three goals and one
assist.
Vincent Damphousse, Scott Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo and Alexander Korolyuk
are other top forwards. Brad Stuart leads a hard-nosed defensive corps with
Kyle McLaren, Scott Hannan and Mike Rathje.
The Sharks will have home ice in the second round for the first time in franchise
history.
"We worked hard all year to get home ice and finish third (overall) in
the league. You don't pick your poison or anything like that," Wilson said
of facing the Avalanche. "We're just happy to be in the next round and
we get to keep on playing."