This isn't one of the names that we figured to have a little trouble pronouncing when the Stanley Cup Playoffs began.

Marek Svatos was supposed to be the Colorado Avalanche winger we would most likely mispronounce. But Svatos, who scored 32 goals, including a League-leading nine game-winners, before sustaining a season-ending knee injury after playing in just 61 games.

Inserting rookies at crunch time is nothing new for the Avalanche. We all remember the exploits of youngsters like Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk and Svatos, who scored a key early playoff goal against Dallas goaltender Marty Turco when the Avs met the Stars in the first round of the 2004 playoffs.

On Saturday, April 22, another rookie wound up on Colorado's doorstep to start the playoffs -- again against the Dallas Stars. His name: Wojtek Wolski. But he won't mind if you call him W-squared ... for now.

The 20-year-old Wolski from Zabrze, Poland, (pronounced VOY-TEK VOL-SKEE) made a rather encouraging playoff debut by scoring one goal and setting up two more to help the Avalanche beat the Stars, 5-2, to open a first-round series. A few more performances like that and everyone will remember Colorado's first-round pick from 2004, 21st overall, better than the other Polish-born NHL players like Mariusz Czerkawski, Nick Harbaruk, Joe Jerwa or Krzysztof Oliwa.

"I had an open net and I put it in," Wolski said of his game-tying goal in Game 1. "I thought I was going to jump out of my skates."

He paused for a moment to savor the thought of scoring a goal in his first playoff game in the NHL, then proudly said, "I definitely want to be remembered for something that I do on the ice that's positive. And with a name like mine, if I do something positive, it's easy to remember it."

Wolski, who played in nine games with the Avalanche at the start of the season and had two goals and four assists before he returned to the Brampton Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League, where he produced 128 points, including 47 goals, in 56 games. He had an incredible 55 points in the last 18 games of the regular season and won OHL Player of the Month honors for December, January, February and March.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder who fled from Poland to Germany 18 years ago and then settled in Mississauga, Ontario, when he was four, said all the right things after his first Stanley Cup Playoff games. He said his favorite player wasn't Czerkawski, but rather intensity-filled Edmonton winger Ryan Smyth.

Playing at center between Jim Dowd and Alex Tanguay, Wolski helped Colorado erase a 2-0 Dallas lead, scoring his goal to tie the game and then set up goals by defensemen Rob Blake in the second period and Brett Clark in the third. It was Wolski's success working down low that was used throughout the Avs game plan in Game 2 and led to success by the team's No. 1 line that features Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk.

"It was impressive the kind of presence he showed us," Colorado Coach Joel Quenneville said of Wolski. "That second goal was a great play. He really has quick hands around the net. He does a lot of things that you don't see kids that age do. He shows great patience with the puck. He makes plays, sees plays."

Wolski used to be a one-dimensional player, letting his skills get him where he was going. But he said he learned to be a more passionate player by sitting between and listening to Avalanche captain Joe Sakic and Pierre Turgeon in September and October.

"Growing up, you play the game for fun," he said. "Once you get to the next level you have people playing for large amounts of money for their families ... and everything is taken very seriously. You have to work every single day, every single night. It's definitely a different lifestyle than I was accustomed to. But, thinking about that approach, helped me be more businesslike when I went back to Brampton."

Unlike the parents that move their children around trying to find a spot on the best athletic teams around, hockey was not on the minds of Wes Wolski and his wife, Zofia, who just wanted to find a better life for Wojtek and his older brother Kordian.

First, they fled Communist controlled Poland to Berlin, knowing they could get to Canada easier by way of Germany. Wes (shortened from Wieslaw) got a job as a stonemason in Berlin. But two years later, they were headed for Winnipeg, but settled in Mississauga, just outside of Toronto.

Wolski has adapted to North America and is happy to get his NHL career started.

"My parents didn't know the language, I didn't know the language, my brother didn't know the language, and for the first little while it was hard," Wolski said. "We came to Canada with absolutely nothing. We lived with my aunt and uncle for months until my parents found jobs.

"I think we moved because my parents wanted a better opportunity for myself and my brother. Their brother and sister moved there and they said it was the land of opportunity. They thought it'd be better for us."

Wes and Zofia took English classes. The boys had sports and school to become more North Americanized.

Back in Poland, the family sport was soccer. Wojtek has an uncle that was a professional soccer player and a cousin, Sebastian Mila, who plays for Vienna in the Austrian league and could represent Poland at the Athens Olympics this summer. While soccer is pretty important to the Wolski family here in Canada, his parents didn't mind that he and his older brother Kordian chose hockey.

"My brother got into it through friends at school," Wolski told me. "They used to play at the tennis courts they used to freeze over for winter. And as soon as he started doing something, I wanted to as well."

Wolski's parents did have their doubts about Wolski as a hockey player at first.

"At the beginning, we didn't have much money," Wolski said. "So I just used my brothers stuff. He was five years older and his equipment was too big for me, but I didn't care. I'd put on a couple of extra pair of socks so that I could fit in my brother's skates so that I could play."

But things have not always been so rosy for Wolski. Shortly before the draft in June of 2004, Wojtek was charged by Toronto police with assault causing bodily harm after a birthday party in which an 18-year-old was beaten and hospitalized. The case was dismissed when it was learned that Wolski was defending the honor of his girlfriend, who had been pushed off a porch. To this day, Wojtek believes the incident cost him a chance to be picked among the top 10-15 players in the draft, instead of 21.

"It's not something that you want to go through," Wolski said. "But I think the positive support I got from my family, friends and coach kind of made me stronger."

While some teams didn't want to take a chance on Wolski because of the assault charge, the Avalanche did a thorough background check and realized it was an out-of-character reaction by a teen. This is the same kid who moved to freedom, foreign to the language, nearly broke, with a precious few of their old belongings. And hungry to make good.

"I remember the first time I went back home to my parents new four-bedroom house in Mississauga, I knew it wasn't long ago that I shared a sofa bed and a pair of skates with my brother," Wolski said, recalling the trials and tribulations his family has endured to get to what he considers a pretty nice lifestyle now -- especially now that he has made it to the NHL.

Wojtek's first professional contract with the Avalanche helped his parents afford this new house and new life, one that also had his father owning his own contracting company that specializes in installing marble.

He's learned that he's at best on the ice when he's sharing the puck as well.

"I'm a player who wants the puck when our team needs a big play," Wolski said, after his biggest NHL moment.