ST. PAUL, Minn. – Jose Theodore and the Colorado Avalanche just sat back and waited. Then Wojtek Wolski and Paul Stastny pushed the Minnesota Wild to the edge of elimination.

Wojtek and Stastny scored 79 seconds apart early in the third period to give Theodore and the patient Avs a 3-2 victory on Thursday and a 3-2 series lead, after weathering a relentless effort by the Wild.

Minnesota outshot Colorado 32-14 over the first two periods. But following an interference penalty by Sean Hill, with 5 seconds left on the power play, Wolski sent the puck through goalie Niklas Backstrom’s pads for a 2-1 lead with 14:54 remaining.

Then came the knockout blow by Stastny, the regular-season goals leader for the Avalanche who was searching for his first score of this series. He took a smooth pass by Milan Hejduk and made a nifty pivot to lift a back-hander over Backstrom.

Game 6 is in Denver on Saturday night. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, more than 80 percent (158 of 196) of the Game 5 winners of previously tied playoff series have advanced to the next round in NHL history.

Theodore made 38 saves. He gave up a too-late slap shot goal by Brian Rolston with 2.5 seconds left and a first-period power-play goal by Pierre-Marc Bouchard.

Andrew Brunette also scored for Colorado.

AP-ES-04-17-08 2335EDT