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The San Jose Sharks scored three times in less than four minutes after the opening faceoff Sunday night in Calgary, but Flames coach Mike Keenan elected not to call a timeout.

Ditto for Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings, who watched his team's 2-0 second-period lead on Saturday against Nashville evaporate in 11 seconds.

Avalanche's Jose Theodore posted a 2.24 goals-against average from Jan. 1 through the end of the regular season.
(David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

So, when is the right time to give players a 30-second break to collect their thoughts during an intense, high-paced Stanley Cup playoff game?

Perhaps goaltender Jose Theodore will give Colorado Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville something to ponder in Game 3 of their NHL Western Conference quarter-final against visiting Minnesota on Monday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 10 p.m. ET).

Four of five goals surrendered by Theodore in Games 1 and 2 have come in the third period. The other, by defenceman Keith Carney, lifted the Wild to a 3-2 overtime win on Friday at home.

"In the playoffs, you want to try to keep your team in the game early on," Theodore, who sported a 2.24 goals-against average from Jan. 1 through the end of the regular season, told reporters Sunday. "When you're focused, you don't really count shots or you don't see time go by."

Coughing up third-period leads is one area of concern for Colorado, which blew a 2-0 advantage in Game 1 and a 1-0 edge on Friday.

"Both games they got a big goal on the power play to tie it up," said Quenneville. "I don't think we've given up more in the third [period] than we did in the first part of the game."

The series is tied 1-1 after Friday's Wild win. Colorado took Game 1 last Wednesday.

Focus on next game

Theodore could hardly be blamed on the OT goal in Game 2 as the puck deflected off Colorado defenceman Ruslan Salei and past the helpless netminder.

"There's nothing you can do about it. You just have to focus on the next game," Salei offered.

Monday's game will be played at the Pepsi Center, where Salei and company earned 27 regular-season wins, third-most in the NHL.

The Avalanche took three of four meetings versus Minnesota on home ice in the regular campaign and prevailed in nine of their last 10 overall in Denver. However, they did drop their final three home playoff games in 2006.

"In our sport, you feel comfortable wherever you play," said Colorado captain Joe Sakic. "We went to Minnesota and didn't have a problem with the crowd noise, and we know they're not going to care about the crowd noise here."

Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, whose team has lost five straight road playoff games, is mindful the Avalanche will probably raise their game to another level at home.

The coach can only hope being on the road will relax some of his top scorers, namely Pavol Demitra and Marian Gaborik, who led Minnesota with 42 goals and 83 points this season.

He was held scoreless in the season-finale versus the Avalanche and has managed only three shots with a minus-2 rating in two post-season games. Gaborik and Demitra combined for three goals and 11 points in the season series.

"They have quick forwards, and Gaborik and Demitra are some of the quickest," said Colorado rearguard Kurt Sauer, who along with veteran Adam Foote has been assigned to shut down the Wild duo.

"Guys with that much speed, if you don't have a good gap and you're standing still, they're going to blow by you. They almost do it anyway."

Sauer, Foote and the other Avalanche defenders won't have to be concerned with forward Branko Radivojevic in Game 3. He sprained his knee in Friday's game after being hit by Colorado's Paul Stastny.

Forward Mark Parrish (concussion) and defenceman Nick Schultz (appendectomy) are also out, while Avalanche rookie forward David Jones (ankle) expects to play after practising Sunday.

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