Red Wings Win In Overtime, Return to Stanley Cup Finals.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 in dramatic fashion needing overtime to do it. This was the third overtime game of the series. Chicago did all it could and threw everything they had at the Wings, even an outstanding performance by backup goalie Cristobal Huet but in the end it just wasn’t enough. Detroit opened the scoring six and a half minutes in when Daniel Cleary beat Huet. Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane roughly 7 minutes later streaked down the right side of the rink and unleashed a rising backhand shot that beat Red Wing goalie Chris Osgood over his left shoulder tying the game up at 1 a piece. Into overtime they went and 3 minutes and 58 seconds in Darren Helm netted the winner and sending the Western Conference champion Red Wings back to the Stanley Cup final with a chance to repeat as champions. Unfortunately for the Blackhawks they ran into an extremely tough and motivated Red Wing team. Next year Chicago will use this experience to their advantage and will probably be a force to reckon with for years to come.
Surprise, surprise Detroit will once again square off with Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh is coming off a four-game sweep over Carolina and will open the championship series Saturday night in Detroit. The Pens are looking for some payback after losing last year.
The Stanley Cup Final wasn’t supposed to start until June 6 but because both conference champs dispatched their opponents so expeditiously, the NHL wanting to avoid any kind of layoff or momentum killer in television ratings pushed up the start of the series to Saturday night. Game 1 will be in Detroit.
The Red Wings, the first defending champion to get back to the finals since New Jersey in 2001, are trying to become the first team to repeat since winning the Cup in 1997 and ‘98. The Red Wings are an NHL-best 8-1 in the playoffs at home this year. Nicklas Lidstrom missed the game due to a continuing lower body injury, it was the second straight playoff game he missed since his debut in 1992. He played in 228 straight before missing game 4.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:30 am
When you are the reigning Stanley Cup winners ,you fight to keep those exclusive rights. The Detroit Red Wings did just enough damage to win in over time as they did in 2 previous over time games with the Chicago Black Hawks. They again received great goal tending from Chris Osgood. Even though they are missing many key players through injury,their depth in reserves have come through for them. Give full credit to Chicago goalie Cristobal Huet who kept the Hawks in the game by stopping 21 shots in the 1st period and 44 shots overall. In fact the 1st goal by the Wings was a deflection of his own defense man.