Red Wings are Back in Stanley Cup Finals

photo credit: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press

(2) RED WINGS 2 – (4) BLACKHAWKS 1 O-T

DET wins series, 4-1

The Red Wings’ playoff tutorial of the young Blackhawks ended Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena with another impressive performance from the Stanley Cup champions.

Detroit was once again shorthanded, and once again saw someone step into the spotlight. Darren Helm scored 3:58 into overtime to send the Wings to the championship series, where they will meet the Penguins for the second straight spring. The NHL’s last Finals rematch was 25 years ago between the Oilers and Islanders.

“To have the opportunity against Pittsburgh should be a lot of fun,” said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock. “There will be a lot of hype.”

The NHL and NBC do not want that hype to dissipate, so Game 1 of the Finals will be Saturday night in Motown. The series was to start next Friday.

Helm put the Wings alongside the Pens with his left foot, which the puck bounced in off of after alluding Helm’s stick. Tomas Holmstrom had jammed the puck through Cristobal Huet to set up the scoring opportunity.

The result spoiled Huet’s effort. He made 44 saves, including 21 in the opening period, in his second straight start with Nikolai Khabibulin dealing with a lower-body injury. “He is to be commended, the game he played to keep us in it,” Chicago coach Joe Quenneville said of Huet.

“We squeaked one past him,” offered Helm about the game-winner.

Dan Cleary started the scoring with his eighth goal of the playoffs 6:08 into the third period. Patrick Kane got the Blackhawks even with a gorgeous top-shelf backhand as he drove the right wing. Detroit nearly won the game in regulation when Johan Franzen found the puck at the side of the net with Huet down on his stomach. But Huet miraculously threw up his right pad to deny Franzen.

The Red Wings are the first defending champ in eight years to return to the Finals. They are the last franchise to claim back-to-back titles, doing so in 1997 and ’98.

“It’s a unique situation, definitely this doesn’t happen too often,” said Marian Hossa.

Odds & Ends...Martin Havlat sat out for Chicago. Jonathan Ericsson and Kris Draper joined Lidstrom and Datsyuk on the Detroit sidelines. Ericcson underwent emergency surgery in the afternoon for appendicitis. He is supposed to be ready for Game 1 with the Penguins...This will be the 10^th time teams have met in consecutive Finals, including Detroit and Montreal, who met in 1954, ’55, and ’56.