(Sports Network) - The top-seeded Detroit Red Wings will try to take a two games to none lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals today, when they host the Colorado Avalanche in Game 2 at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings, who won the Presidents' Trophy this year as the league's best team in the regular season, earned a 4-3 decision in Game 1 on Thursday night to take a 1-0 lead in this series.

Johan Franzen registered two goals and an assist and Chris Osgood made 18 saves, including a brilliant stop in the dying seconds of regulation, to help Detroit hold on for the win in the Motor City.

Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary also scored for the Red Wings, who needed six games to eliminate the Nashville Predators in the quarterfinals. Brian Rafalski collected two assists in the win.

Osgood has started the last three games for Detroit after Dominik Hasek went 2-2 in the first four tests of the Nashville series. The 35-year-old Osgood has been spectacular in these playoffs, going 3-0 with a 1.12 goals against average and .947 save percentage. Osgood was an All-Star this year and went 27-9-4 during the regular season.

Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk each posted a goal and an assist for Colorado, which defeated the Minnesota Wild in six games in the first round. John- Michael Liles also scored, while Ryan Smyth notched two assists.

Jose Theodore allowed four goals on 16 shots before he was lifted in favor of Peter Budaj, who made 20 saves the rest of the way. Theodore had been excellent in the first round, as he stopped 188-of-200 shots in the series against the Wild while posting a 1.88 GAA and .940 save percentage.

Colorado was without the services of center Peter Forsberg, who was scratched from Game 1 because of a sore groin. The 34-year-old Forsberg, who sat out most of this season before singing with the Avs in late February, had one goal and 13 assists in nine regular-season games with Colorado this year. He added five points (1g, 4a) in the first round against Minnesota.

The Swedish centerman is questionable for tonight's contest.

Avs winger Wojtek Wolski is expected to be miss the rest of this series with an unspecified upper-body injury. The 22-year-old Wolski recorded 18 goals and 30 assists during the regular season and has two goals and three helpers in the playoffs.

The Avalanche and Red Wings are two of the NHL's most successful franchises in recent history, as they combined to win five Stanley Cup titles from 1996-2002. The teams met in the postseason five times during that stretch.

However, this is the first time the clubs are facing off in the postseason since Detroit beat Colorado in seven games during the 2002 Western Conference finals. That was also the last time the Avs made it past the second round of the playoffs.

All told, Colorado has won three of the five all-time playoff series with the Red Wings.

The Red Wings were the best home team in this year's regular season, posting a 29-9-3 record at the Joe. Meanwhile, Colorado struggled on the road with a 17-19-5 mark.

The series will shift to Denver for Game 3, as the Avs are scheduled to host Tuesday's test at the Pepsi Center.