Red Wings 6, Avalanche 3

DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit Red Wings used a strong finish to make up for a weak start.

Tomas Holmstrom broke a tie with a power-play goal early in the third period and Detroit beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 on Sunday in the last game before the Olympic break for each team.

Detroit, which won its sixth straight, got a goal and two assists from Pavel Datsyuk and a goal and an assist from Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, and Mathieu Schneider. Jason Williams and Brendan Shanahan also scored and Nicklas Lidstrom had two assists.

The Red Wings, who trailed 2-0 10:04 into the game, completed a four-game sweep of its season series against the Avalanche.

"We didn't get off to a great start tonight," Shanahan said. "... But from the 10-minute mark of the first period for the rest of the game, we played a pretty strong 50 minutes."

Dan Hinote had a goal and an assist for Colorado and Patrice Brisebois and Milan Hejduk got the other goals.

"It wasn't our best game," Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. "Technically, we didn't get a lot of things done. Against that kind of team, we've got to a play a perfect game from start to finish."

Holmstrom chopped in the rebound of Lidstrom's shot 4:43 into the third period with Brad Richardson off for hooking to give Detroit a 4-3 lead. Zetterberg and Shanahan (empty net) added goals later in the period.

Datsyuk's 21st goal tied it at 2 for the Red Wings 6:51 into the second period. He beat David Aebischer from the slot. But Hinote restored the Avalanche's one-goal lead 2:49 later when he banked one in off Manny Legace from the side of the net.

Williams tied it at 3 with 9:17 left in the period when he redirected a pass from Brett Lebda in the slot.

"They've got a good hockey team," Colorado's Joe Sakic said. "They move the puck well, we know we've got to play better against them, especially in the neutral zone where they pick up their speed."

Colorado led 2-1 after the first period.

Brisebois opened the scoring at 5:35 with a slap shot from the top of the right circle that beat Legace. Hejduk made it 2-0 at 10:04 with his 16th goal. He beat Legace from the slot after taking a pass from Sakic, who had stolen the puck from Andreas Lilja behind the net.

"I didn't think we were playing terrible, but I didn't think we had the intensity the first 10 minutes," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

Schneider got Detroit on the board with 6:07 left in the period with his 19th. He beat Aebischer with slap shot from the left point.

Notes: Colorado LW Alex Tanguay missed the game because of an injured hip flexor. ... The Red Wings' nine Olympians were honored before the game. They are: Chris Chelios and Schneider (U.S.), Kris Draper (Canada), Robert Lang (Czech Republic), Datsyuk (Russia), and Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg (Sweden). ... The Avalanche also have nine: John-Michael Liles (U.S.), Aebischer (Switzerland), Sakic and Rob Blake (Canada), Peter Budaj and Marek Svatos (Slovakia), Hejduk (Czech Republic), Antti Laaksonen (Finland) and Karlis Skrastins (Latvia). ... Hinote's goal was his first in 29 games.