DETROIT, MICH – With all of the stars on the ice, it may just be fitting that a series between two of the NHL’s “Original Six” would be decided by one of the unheralded grinders.
Darren Helm earned himself a place in Red Wings lore, deflecting in Tomas Holmstrom’s shot at 3:58 of overtime to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Wednesday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. The win sealed the series for the ‘Wings who now head to the Stanley Cup finals and a rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who they beat a year ago. Game 1 of the finals is set for Saturday in Detroit.
D Helm. Photo courtesy of the National Hockey League
Helm’s third goals of the playoffs came after some hard Detroit pressure in the Chicago end. Brett Lebda drove a shot from the point that missed the net but got a favorable off the lively Joe Louis Arena boards back toward the front of the net. Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet could not handle the puck before Holmstrom was able to direct it through the net minder’s pads to Helm who steered it into the net
Detroit came out and tried to jump on Chicago, getting two early shots that Huet handled easily. The Blackhawks started waking up soon after, getting some much needed energy from Dave Bolland who clanged one off the post behind Red Wings’ net minder Chris Osgood. Later, Osgood made a sliding pad save on Colin Fraser who was set up by Patrick Kane. Detroit answered Chicago’s flurry with one of its own, launching six more at Huet in a two minute span.
As the period went on, Huet became more and more the story. Detroit was firing from everywhere and each time Huet was there with the pads or the glove. His best sequence may have been on a Detroit when he stopped a Marian Hossa shot and quickly rebounded to deny Johan Franzen on the rebound. By the time the horn sounded to end the stanza, the Red Wings had 21 shots to the Blackhawks 9 but the game was a scoreless tie.
Not to be outdone, Osgood had the starring role early in the second period. Chicago came out of the intermission with a renewed passion and stormed the Red Wings’ defensive end. Osgood had to be on his game as Ben Eager, Fraser, Andrew Ladd and Troy Brouwer had testing shots at the Detroit net.
The pressure ramped up on Osgood midway through the period when Chicago got its first two power plays of the game. On the first opportunity, Duncan Keith rang the post among several good chances. Even after the man advantage was over, the Blackhawks kept pressing, leading to Brouwer having to be hooked by Detroit’s Lebda. Despite the chances, Chicago failed to score.
Late in the period, Detroit got a second wind and began forcing the play. In one sequence, Huet had to be ready as Helm and Henrik Zetterberg combined for three opportunities in less than a minute. Chicago out shot Detroit 11-10 in the period but just as it was at the start of the game, the scoreboard read 0-0.
Realizing that their season was in the balance, the Blackhawks started the third period flying around. They forced Detroit into a defensive end turnover that Brouwer turned into a testing shot that Osgood blocked. Seconds later, Fraser had a shot that Osgood got in front of to keep the game scoreless.
Finally, Detroit broke the deadlock by taking advantage of Chicago mistakes. The Red Wings put some pressure on the Blackhawks, causing the ‘Hawks to fail to clear the puck. After a pair of saves by Huet, the puck was fed to Lebda who drove the rubber at the net. Cleary, standing in front as a screen, was able to deflect it past Huet at 6:08 to put the ‘Wings in front.
Chicago began to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Detroit. For a while, Osgood held his ground, keeping the Blackhawks at bay. Then with just over seven minutes in regulation, the visitors found a hole. Defenseman Brent Seabrook got control of the puck and sent Kane away down the boards. Using his speed, Kane got into position and fired a backhander that eluded Osgood to tie the game. It was Kane’s first goal of the series and just his second point against the Red Wings.
Kane’s goal set off a mad dash to the end of regulation. Both teams had chances to break the deadlock, none better than Hossa’s opportunity that Huet stopped with 17 seconds remaining and then sprawled to keep Franzen‘s rebound shot out of the net. It set the stage for the third overtime game in the series.
As the extra session started, the question was who would be the hero. Three minutes in, Red Wings’ veteran defenseman Chris Chelios started a rush that ended with Huet making a save on Franzen’s shot and the follow-up drive by Chelios. It was the beginning of the end as moments later, Helm was in the right place in the right time to end the series.
Game notes…Detroit’s lineup took another hit just hours before the game as defenseman Jonathan Ericsson had an emergency appendectomy, joining Nicklas Lidstrom (lower body) and Pavel Datsyuk (foot) on the sidelines. Chicago was without goalie Nikolai Khabibulin for the second straight game (lower body) and was also missing forward Martin Havlat who was still suffering after affects from being hit by Niklas Kronwall in Game 3. In missing Game 4 on Sunday, Lidstrom had his consecutive playoff games played streak ended at 228…The Red Wings hosted the newly-crowned Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires at Joe Louis Arena for Game 5. Windsor defeated Kelowna in the title game on Sunday…Chicago’s franchise turnaround has the team up for two non-hockey awards. Thursday in New York, the Blackhawks are up for Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily’s “Professional Sports Team of the Year” while team chairman W. Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz is a finalist for “Sports Executive of the Year”. The awards, which recognize excellence and outstanding achievement in the business of sports for 2008, will be presented at an awards gala at the New York Marriott Marquis…Detroit heads into the finals with a sparkling 8-1 record at home this playoff season…Huet was outstanding in the loss, stopping 44 of Detroit’s 46 shots on net. Osgood was just as good, making 30 saves on 31 Chicago shots…Following tradition, when assistant captain Zetterberg, representing the Red Wings, was presented with the Campbell trophy, he refused to touch it, symbolic of only wanting to touch the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile at east the Penguins celebrated with the Prince of Wales trophy as they had not last year and lost…The last time the same two teams met in back-to-back Stanley Cup finals came in 1984 when Edmonton and the New York Islanders met after tangling in the 1983 Cup finals. New York won it all in 1983 before Edmonton took the crown in 1984.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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