Johan Franzen recorded his second hat trick in three games as the Detroit Red Wings advanced in the National Hockey League Stanley Cup playoffs with a lopsided 8-2 victory over Colorado.

Henrik Zetterberg added two goals and two assists as the top-seeded Red Wings completed a 4-0 sweep of the best-of-seven Western Conference semi-final series.

Mikael Samuelsson also scored twice, Tomas Holmstrom added a goal and Pavel Datsyuk collected three assists for the Red Wings, who advanced to the conference finals for the second season in a row.

Captain Nicklas Lidstrom, Jiri Hudler and Valtteri Filppula each notched a pair of assists for the Red Wings, who await the winner of the series between the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars.

The Sharks fended off elimination in that series with a 2-1 victory on Wednesday, but the Stars still lead 3-1 and can advance with a victory on Friday.

Tyler Arnason and defenseman John-Michael Liles netted goals for the Avalanche, who have been swept in the conference semi-finals in each of their past two postseason appearances.

In 2006, Colorado failed to record a victory in the second round against Anaheim.

The New York Rangers, led by two goals from captain Jaromir Jagr and a penalty-shot save by goalie Henrik Lundqvist, beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 to stave off playoff elimination.

The Penguins, leading the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-finals 3-1, have another chance to wrap up the series in Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Jagr, who won two Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992, broke the game open in the second period, beating goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a low wrist-shot from a feed by rookie Brandon Dubinsky.

"Personally, I would like to play (Game 5) tomorrow," said Jagr, who has scored three of the Rangers' 10 goals in the series and assisted on four others.

"Then after tomorrow again. The scoring is great -- I love to score goals, help the team," said the Czech-born forward, who has more than 640 goals in his 18-year National Hockey League career.

Lundqvist stopped all 29 shots he faced and kept the Rangers in the game early on, making a fine pad save on a breakway by Evgeni Malkin, who scored twice in the Penguins' 5-3 win in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

The Swedish goaltender then stopped Ryan Malone on a short-handed breakway in the second after Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi lost the puck.

In the 18th minute of the second period, Girardi lost his stick and pushed Malkin into Lundqvist on a breakaway. The puck ended up in the goal but the referee ruled no score since the net had come off its moorings in the collision.

Malkin was awarded a penalty shot but Lundqvist made an easy glove-save from the Russian forward's weak shot.

The Rangers started the third period on the powerplay after Petr Sykora was penalised late in the second. They made it count when Dubinsky took a pass from Martin Straka from behind the net, swiveled and shot on the turn past Fleury.

The Penguins' frustration boiled over later in the period and Sidney Crosby ended up in the penalty box after he took exception to Girardi's hit on Marian Hossa.

Jagr settled the game with an empty-net goal seconds from the end on the powerplay.

AFP