Hejduk, Forsberg spark Avs' victory

Milan Hejduk scored twice, and Peter Forsberg had 3 assists, including 2 in a 4-goal spurt in the second period of the Colorado Avalanche 's 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.

Forsberg replaced Ryan Smyth on the second line to start the second period, and the line of Hejduk (2 goals, 1 assist), Paul Stastny (1 goal, 2 assists) and Forsberg combined for 9 points after that.

With his three assists, Forsberg doubled his total since rejoining the Avalanche on March 4, nine days after signing with a $1 million deal for the remainder of the season. He has yet to score a goal.

The Avalanche broke a seventh-place tie with the Canucks in the tight Western Conference playoff race with its second straight win on home ice following a four-game skid. The Canucks lost their third straight.

Daniel Sedin and Taylor Pyatt scored to give Vancouver a 2-1 lead in the first period.

Colorado turned the deficit into a 5-2 lead by 11:31 of the second period, after which Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault pulled goaltender Robert Luongo and replaced him with Curtis Sanford.

Stastny, Cody McLeod, Hejduk and Ben Guite scored goals in a 6½-minute span as the Avs matched a season-high for goals in a period.

Wild 3, Oilers 1: Two nights after getting routed in Edmonton, Minnesota was were the aggressor from the start in a victory over the visiting Oilers.

Sean Hill, Branko Radivojevic and Brian Rolston scored and Mikko Koivu added three assists for the Wild, who started a four-game homestand with a victory to leap-frog Calgary into first place in the Northwest Division.

Niklas Backstrom made 32 saves, and got some help from a defense that left him exposed in a 5-3 loss to the Oilers on Monday night.

The Wild started fast, scoring two goals on their first 4 shots to make things tough on Edmonton, which had won 12 of its last 15 games to vault back into playoff contention.

Fernando Pisani scored for the Oilers.