Swede and Sour

DENVER —  For the Colorado Avalanche, everything went according to the script Thursday night.

Peter Forsberg assisted on two goals in his first game in 11 months and the Avalanche defeated the Kings, 4-3, in Game 1 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series before a sellout crowd of 18,007 in the Pepsi Center.

The Kings made a spirited attempt to spoil the coming-out party for the Swedish superstar, overcoming 2-0 and 3-2 deficits, but their road winless streak reached seven games after Greg de Vries scored on a rebound with 5:34 to play.

The goal was the first in 67 playoff games for the defenseman, who charged into the slot to bang home the rebound of a shot by Eric Messier.

“I thought I stopped [Messier’s shot] with my skate,” King goaltender Felix Potvin said. “I was looking for the puck on that [left] side and I lost it in traffic.”

The Kings, 0-6-1 on the road since March 18, got two game-tying goals from Ziggy Palffy and a drought-ending goal from Bryan Smolinski, whose goal in the second period was only his third since Jan. 5, the first not scored into an empty net.

Forsberg, meanwhile, assisted on goals by former King Steven Reinprecht and Joe Sakic, the second giving the Avalanche a 3-2 lead early in the third period.

“I’m not surprised,” said King winger Adam Deadmarsh, a former teammate and one of Forsberg’s closest friends. “He’s got enough skill to make up for any time he missed. He’s not himself out there, but he played pretty solid. He didn’t look too rusty for missing as much time as he did. We’re going to have to key on him.”

Forsberg, though, thought he could have played a lot better.

“My legs felt heavy the whole game but that’s just the way it’s going to be the first couple of games,” he said. “It’s going to take time to get it back.”

Said Alex Tanguay, who scored the Avalanche’s first goal: “You can’t expect him to go out and score six goals in his first game back. But he played great hockey and with him in the lineup, that just gives us more depth.

“Just give him a few games and he’ll be unstoppable again.”

While all eyes were on Forsberg this week, the Kings quietly prepared, confident in their ability to pull off a first-round upset after last year’s encouraging playoff showing and their 95-point regular season, which left them only four points behind the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche.

The Avalanche, meanwhile, was counting on an emotional boost from Forsberg to jump-start its title defense. The six-time All-Star hadn’t played since May 9, when he helped the Avalanche eliminate the Kings from the playoffs with a 5-1 victory in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Hours after that game, Forsberg, 28, underwent an emergency operation to remove his spleen. Four more surgeries on his ankles and left foot delayed his return, forcing him to sit out the Olympics and prompting questions this week about whether the Kings would try to test him early by pounding on him.

“That’s going to be their decision,” Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley said before the game. “Whether he didn’t play all year, or we go by the past playoffs, teams were taking some pretty good runs at him and it never prevented him from playing his game. I think it brings the best out of him....

“We’re anticipating some great things from Peter.”

So was the crowd, which greeted Forsberg with a standing ovation when he skated onto the ice for his first shift 83 seconds into the game.

Forsberg, though, wasn’t much of a factor in a tightly played first period that turned sour for the Kings in the last six minutes.

First, an apparent goal by Craig Johnson with 5:18 to play in the period was waved off because the play had been blown dead.

Then, Tanguay gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead when he scored with nine seconds to play in the period after King defenseman Mattias Norstrom poked the puck away from Sakic, Chris Drury controlling it in the neutral zone.

Drury steamed up the middle unchecked and fed a pass on the left wing to Tanguay, who swept the puck from left to right in front of him, drawing Potvin out of position before carrying the puck into the slot and slipping a backhanded shot into the unguarded net.

Forsberg assisted on the Avalanche’s second goal, scored by Reinprecht from the slot to make the score 2-0 at 4:22 of the second period.

With Sakic in the penalty box for tripping Cliff Ronning, Smolinski scored a power-play goal to cut the King deficit to 2-1 with 9:08 remaining in the period.

Palffy tied the score with 5:40 left in the period, taking a pass from Jason Allison and carrying the puck through the left faceoff circle and into the slot before sweeping a backhanded shot between the legs of goaltender Patrick Roy.

Sakic put the Avalanche back in front, scoring a power-play goal at 1:06 of the third period after Forsberg had poked the puck to him.

But Palffy again pulled the Kings even, again on a backhanded shot, this time beating Roy on a breakaway with 16:35 to play.