Wings Ground Hawks for 3-1 Lead

photo: Tom Cruze, Chicao Sun-Times

(2) RED WINGS 6 – (4) BLACKHAWKS 1

DET leads series, 3-1

The Detroit Red Wings are firmly back in control of the Western Conference finals after this blowout of the Blackhawks in the United Center on NBC Sunday afternoon. Without Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa and Henrik Zetterberg put the defending champions one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Motown, where the Red Wings won twice to begin this series. And the way the young Blackhawks handled themselves in Game 4, the chances of another game in Chicago seem bleak.

Chicago took 16 penalties, including three misconducts, for a grand total of 56 penalty minutes. Their early angst was a misguided pursuit of revenge for Niklas Kronwall’s (clean) hit on Martin Havlat Friday night. Once they were behind, the Blackhawks continued their minor goonery and prevented any comeback.

“We tried to keep our poise. We knew they were coming,” Zetterberg said of the inexperienced Hawks. Keeping their pose meant scoring three power play goals to blow this game open.

The scoring started, though, during a Chicago man-advantage midway through the opening period. That’s when Marian Hossa scored to kickstart the depleted Wings.

After Johan Franzen scored late in the first period for a 2-0 lead, Hossa set up Valtteri Filppula for a power play goal and then scored at even strength (with a Jonathan Toews PP goal in between) to put Detroit ahead, 4-1, in the first 4:05 of the second.

Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville pulled Cristobal Huet, playing for an injured Nikolai Khabibulin, at that point and replaced him with rookie Corey Crawford. He allowed Zetterberg’s power play tally at 7:42 of the second. Huet returned for the third and allowed the final Wing goal of the day, another power play goal from Zetterberg.

Hossa ended up with two goals, an assist, and a +2 rating. It was his seventh career multi-goal effort in the postseason.

“I thought [Hossa] was awesome today,” said Detroit head coach Mike Babcock. “He played big, was physical, took the puck to the net.”

Only 21 of 231 (9.1%) teams to fall behind three-games-to-one have recovered to win the series. The Blackhawk franchise is not represented in that 21.

“We’ve got more in the tank,” warned Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook. “We’ve got to have a better performance from all 20 guys. That’s the bottom line.”

Odds & Ends…Lidstom and Khabibulin did not play because of lower-body injuries. Datsyuk missed his second straight game because of a sore foot…This was Detroit’s third game of at least six goals this postseason. All three have come on the road.

"Dropping the Gloves" with Andrew Bogusch

photo credit: Harry How, Getty Images

EMBARRASSMENT IN THE DESERT

It’s rare that the sporting public fails to mock the NHL for its latest issue, but the League is getting a pass (for the moment) on one of its worst black eyes in recent memory.

Lawyers met in a Phoenix bankruptcy court Tuesday in the first of many hearings about the Coyotes’ muddled future. And they did so in relative obscurity thanks to the conference finals, the NBA playoffs, the early weeks of the baseball season and the occasional NFL nugget.

Judge Redfield Baum ordered the League and team owner Jerry Moyes into mediation to determine who controls the insolvent franchise. A status hearing has been set for next Thursday. There is also a June 22^nd court date, at which time Baum will hear arguments about the validity of Jim Balsillie’s offer to buy the Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario.

Could this happen to another major professional league?

No, of course not. And while Moyes and Balsillie are certainly the baddest guys in this drama, the NHL is guilty for letting the situation degenerate to this point.

Yes, the League has apparently been in control of the organization since November, but why was Moyes allowed to own the Coyotes in the first place? He was over-leveraged BEFORE putting hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into the franchise. His early expenditures drew the attention of the Securities and Exchange Committee because he was using borrowed money.

Where were the red flags then, five to six years ago? As the Coyotes continued to bleed money, why not reach out to Jerry Reinsdorf then?

Because the NHL simply cannot admit the majority of expansion into warm-weather cities did not work. The game had to be played in the desert, even if created the possibility of boardroom shenanigans like this.

When the Montreal Expos were on life support, Major League Baseball took firm control of the organization to prevent any real embarrassment. The on-field product struggled mightily, but the team quickly found a new place in Washington, D.C. and now plays in a brand new ballpark. MLB did not allow an outsider to swoop in to steal the franchise. And it didn’t cling to the idea that baseball had to exist in Montreal.

But the worst part of the Coyote predicament is something few are discussing. The NHL does not want a team in Hamilton because it would mean more dollars leaving owners’ pockets.

A club in Copps Coliseum would be exponentially more popular than the Coyotes. That would mean more revenue, which would mean an increase to the salary cap and floor, which would mean a greater expenditure for owners.

Gary Bettman can say Copps Coliseum isn’t ready to house an NHL team, and that may be true today. But it’s a dilemma with an answer -- they have engineers and construction workers in Ontario and Balsillie has the cash to fund renovations.

It is an almost criminal stance to take as hockey’s caretaker.

The commissioner can keep Balsillie out of the owners’ club for now for (once again) messing up the application process, but he should not forever ignore Balsillie’s love for the game and his deep pockets, both of which the game could use.

Make him crawl from Phoenix to league headquarters to apologize. Make him use an iPhone for six months. Then let him put his new team in Hamilton and let the game be played in a hockey town.

CHI - DET Game 2 Recap

photo credit: Julian H. Gonzalez, Detroit Free Press

(2) RED WINGS 3 – (4) BLACKHAWKS 2 OT

DET leads series, 2-0

by Andrew Bogusch

Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals was much more competitive than Sunday afternoon’s opener, but the end result was the same – the veteran Red Wings dismissing the young Blackhawks.

Mikael Samuelsson scored 5:14 into overtime on a perfectly executed 3-on-1 rush to give Detroit a two-games-to-none lead as the series shifts to Chicago for Game 3 Friday night. Chris Osgood outdueled Nikolai Khabibulin with 37 saves, including one on Cam Barker seconds before Samuelsson’s game-winner.

This was a game that Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock feels lucky to have won: “I don’t think we had any legs or any pop whatsoever. I thought we had good will and good determination, but no legs.”

This was Detroit’s fourth game in a week. It was Chicago’s best effort of the series, which is why Joel Quenneville called it a brutal loss.

“We want to beat them one game, the next one, and that’s our concern,” he said postgame. “We should be excited about being back in the United Center to recapture some excitement and enthusiasm.”

After Barker’s wristshot and the ensuing scramble in front of Osgood, the puck wound up with Brian Campbell at the right point. Samuelsson put his stick in the way of Campbell’s cross-ice pass and then sent Jiri Hudler and Valtteri Filppula up the ice. Hudler carried the puck across the Chicago blueline and then fed Filppula coming down the right side. He delayed slightly before leaving the puck for Samuelsson to one-time it past a helpless Khabibulin.

Brian Rafalski and Dan Cleary beat Khabibulin in regulation. The goals came between tallies from Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. The Blackhawks led 1-0 for the second straight game after Toews’ passed deflected in off a Red Wing skate at 12:49 of the opening period. Four minutes later, Rafalski scored on the man-advantage to even the score.

Cleary scored for the second straight game on an unassisted breakaway late in the second period, only to see Toews set-up overtime at 12:20 of the final period.

The Red Wings kept Patrick Kane off the score sheet again, but like Toews, Kane was much more effective Tuesday night. Chicago needs more, though, from its young guns to prevent a short series. Yes, Detroit has only retained home court advantage, but Chicago now has almost no margin for error in this two-game hole.

Odds & Ends…The Red Wings have allowed a power play goal in a franchise-record 11 straight games. It is the longest such streak in the NHL since Chicago in 1989…Detroit is 7-1 at Joe Louis Arena in these playoffs, with that only loss coming in triple overtime.

Ducks-Red Wings Game 7 Recap

#2 DETROIT RED WINGS (4-3) over the #8 ANAHEIM DUCKS (3-4) 4-3

Dan Cleary scores the game winning goal to send Detroit back to the Western Conference Finals

(Photo Credit: AP)

by Andrew Bogusch

In a series long on star power, grizzled veteran Dan Cleary scored the series-clinching goal for the Red Wings in Game 7. Cleary forced the puck through Jonas Hiller with three minutes left in the game to send Detroit to its third straight Western Conference finals and end a fitting series between the last two Stanley Cup winners. Five of the seven contests were one-goal games, including that triple-overtime affair in Game 2 and culminating with Thursday’s drama at Joe Louis Arena. “It was the best series I’ve ever been in,” Detroit head coach Mike Babcock said.

This is the farthest a defending champion has gone in its title defense since the Avalanche reached the final four as well in 2002. The Red Wings will face the Blackhawks next in their first postseason meeting in 14 years. “Most teams that have won the Stanley Cup don’t even get here,” Babcock said. “For us to be in this position is a real positive, but we have a hungry Chicago team waiting for us.”

A hungry Anaheim team almost stole Game 7 in enemy territory, rallying from a 3-1 deficit late in the second period. Corey Perry’s power-play marker with 2:50 left in the middle frame started the comeback. Bobby Ryan completed it at 7:37 of the third off a pretty feed from Perry. But the next goal came off a Red Wing stick. Henrik Zetterberg flipped the pick on net from the right wing corner, and it appeared Jonas Hiller would make the save. But Cleary was able to force the puck from under Hiller’s pad into the net for the game-winner. Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle thought there should have been a whistle, but kept himself in check with reporters after the game.

Jiri Hudler (PP), Darren Helm and Mikael Samuelsson helped the Red Wings build their 3-1 lead. Teemu Selanne scored the first Anaheim goal by tucking a loose puck around the left post at 14:50 of the second. He and the Ducks had an early chance for momentum, but they failed to score on a 70-second 5-on-3 power play in the opening minutes of the game.

The Red Wings are now 3-2 all-time in playoff meetings with Anaheim. This will be their eighth trip to the conference finals in 14 years.

Game 1 with Chicago is Sunday afternoon on NBC.