DENVER — The Avalanche got a glimpse of what they'd like to look like next year: the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who are headed to the Western Conference finals after completing their sweep of Colorado.

"Look at the teams that are leading and still alive in the playoffs, from top to bottom they have quickness," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. "You can call it the Super Trifecta. They have size, they have speed, they have skill, and they have youth."

And the Ducks have a red-hot rookie goaltender to boot.

Ilya Bryzgalov saved 40 shots in Anaheim's 4-1 win at the Pepsi Center Thursday night.

Ducks coach Randy Carlyle called it Bryzgalov's best game of the series even though the 25-year-old Russian rookie had two shutouts over the Avs in Anaheim, then stretched his shutout streak to just shy of 250 minutes before finally giving up a goal in Game 3 in Denver.

"He was the biggest reason we won the game," Carlyle said.

A close second was the poor play of Avs defenseman Patrice Brisebois, who was the goat of Game 3 when his turnover led to the Joffrey Lupul's overtime goal, his fourth score of the night.

Brisebois made a trio of blunders that Todd Marchant, Teemu Selanne and Dustin Penner converted to send the Ducks to the conference finals for the second time in three seasons. They'll face either San Jose or Edmonton.

In 2003, Anaheim lost to New Jersey in the Stanley Cup finals.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Wade Redden's power-play goal early in the third period ensured the top-seeded Ottawa Senators wouldn't go down with a whimper.Brian Pothier also scored and Ray Emery stopped 29 shots in a 2-1 win over the Sabres on Thursday that cut Buffalo's lead to 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.The Senators avoided elimination by shaking off the frustrations of a 3-2 overtime loss at Buffalo the previous night, and beat the Sabres in a playoff game for the first time since April 25, 1997, to end a nine-game skid.