Wings at the apex of their game
West Final | Despite losing playoff scoring sensation, Wings lead Stars 2-0
DETROIT - It was a huge win for the Detroit Red Wings and what surely will turn out to be a costly loss for the Dallas Stars.
The Red Wings surprised everybody just before the second game of the NHL's Western Conference final Saturday night by announcing that Johan Franzen, the leading goal scorer of the NHL playoffs, wouldn't play because he's out indefinitely with concussion-like symptoms, but the setback didn't stall their drive for the Stanley Cup.
Rookie Darren Helm, with his first big-league goal, and Henrik Zetterberg scored Detroit's goals and goaltender Chris Osgood again was outstanding in a 2-1 victory that gave the Wings a 2-0 series lead going into Game 3 in Dallas on Monday night.
The Stars lost veteran forward Jere Lehtinen to a leg injury early in the second period of Game 2 and, given what happen at the end, they'll probably lose Mike Ribeiro, too.
Ribeiro was assessed a match penalty as time expired. Ribeiro was behind the Detroit net, raised his stick and slashed Osgood across the chest. Osgood crumbled to the ice. The trainers rushed out to tend to the fallen goalie, but he as eventually able to get up join his teammates to the dressing room and was uninjured.
That wasn't all. With five seconds left, Steve Ott went after Kris Draper from behind and punched the Wings' veteran centre in the head. Ott got roughing and misconduct penalties.
"I'm fine with that," Draper said of the Ott assault. "He threw a punch at me.
"No harm done. You get up and you go. But something like (the slash on Osgood), that's right out of Slap Shot. (Ribeiro) just literally . . . intent to injure on our best player. I couldn't believe it when he did it."
Colin Campbell, the NHL's discipline czar as director of operations, was in attendance and saw it all.
"It's an intense series," said Draper. "There's a lot on the line and it's physical but . . . that's just crossing the line.
"The league's been great all year about stepping in and taking care of this stuff. If it's not a goalie and he two-hands, it could hit a player in the throat, face, teeth, whatever. You kind of shake your head at what he was thinking. It's up to the league to step in and do what they have to do."
Some of the Stars were complaining that Osgood butt-ended Stephane Robidas during the scramble around the Detroit net with two seconds left. Osgood said he stuck out an arm to try and ward off a hit against one of his teammates and didn't try to butt-end anybody. "If it did, it was an accident," he said. "I don't think it justifies a two-hander over the top of the net."
Detroit's latest win was its eighth in a row - all since Helm was inserted into the lineup and Osgood took over from Dom Hasek in the nets.
"This is as good as we played as long as I've been here," said captain Nicklas Lidstrom, who earned Stanley Cup rings in 1997, 1998 and 2002.
Joe Louis Arena remained a chamber of horrors for Dallas goalie Marty Turco, whose career winless streak grew to 11.
"We played a lot better," Turco said. "We've got no doubt we can win some hockey games at home. We're disappointed we're down 2-0, but it'll be a totally different atmosphere when we get home."
Helm, summoned from the AHL farm in Grand Rapids, Mich., in March, opened the scoring with his first NHL goal at 5:56. The 21-year-old from the Winnipeg region, who was on Canada's victorious 2007 world junior team, took a pass from Jiri Hudler and fired in a wrist shot from the circle to Turco's right.
Robidas tied it when he slammed in a cross-ice pass from Ribeiro on a power play at 10:41. Lidstrom had been penalized for flipping the puck over the glass in his own zone.
Referee Marc Joannette disallowed what at first appeared to be another Detroit goal. Pavel Datsyuk lifted the puck past Turco, but Joannette had seen Zetterberg touch it with a glove, and it was ruled a hand pass. Zetterberg scored at 15:13 and that would be enough.
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