Detroit’s Rally Is Not the Kind Washington Likes

The Detroit Red Wings on Thursday showed why they are the defending Stanley Cup champions, and did so in highly entertaining fashion.

The Red Wings twice had to rally in the third period from two-goal deficits to send the game into overtime and then defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-4, on a goal by Kris Draper with 4:36 left in the extra period to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals best-of-seven series.

Detroit needed to take its game to a higher level because Washington goaltender Olaf Kolzig made 55 saves and the physical Capitals gave the Red Wings all they could handle before a capacity crowd of 19,983 at Joe Louis Arena.

“This game [kind of exploded]. The Caps got up, 3-1, and we were really forced to open things up and take chances,” said Detroit captain Steve Yzerman, who scored twice. “Fortunately, they didn’t get but just one power-play goal. The game opened up for us because we were down.”

In summary, Game 2--which lasted nearly four hours--went something like this:

* For the second consecutive game, Detroit recorded the first goal, Yzerman scoring at 7:49 of the opening period;

* Washington caught a break to tie the score, 1-1, early in the second period when Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood made a mental mistake--he thought icing would be called and didn’t play the puck--that led to a goal by the Capitals’ Peter Bondra at 1:51;

* The Capitals continued to outwork Detroit and scored two more goals in the period to take a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes;

* Yzerman then sliced the Red Wings’ deficit to 3-2 when he scored a short-handed goal at 6:37 of the third period;

* Washington quickly responded with a goal on the same power play 28 seconds later when Joe Juneau scored at 7:05;

* Detroit cut the Capitals’ lead back to one goal at 8:08 when Martin Lapointe took a no-look pass from Igor Larionov and scored his eighth goal of the playoffs;

* Washington’s Esa Tikkanen blew a great chance to give the Capitals their third two-goal lead of the period when, at the midway point, he hooked a shot wide of an open net after faking out Osgood;

* The Red Wings sent the game into overtime when Doug Brown picked up a loose puck in the Washington zone and scored a tough goal from the short side at 15:46;

* Draper finally ended the game with 4:36 remaining in overtime when he scored on a perfect perfect assist by Lapointe from the left side of the slot.

“This is obviously my biggest goal . . . this is what you dream about as a little kid when you are playing ball hockey and the clock is counting down and you go to the open net and put it in for your team to win,” Draper said of his first goal in 17 playoff games this season. “And, that is exactly what I was able to do tonight.”

The Red Wings, 11-1 in games in which they score first during the postseason, have now won six consecutive Stanley Cup final games. Last year, Detroit defeated Philadelphia in four games in the finals.

“This is a great win for our hockey club, a great lift,” Draper said. “Washington played a great game tonight, but it just shows you the character that this team has.

“We were very persistent. We felt in the third period that if we kept going, kept going, that sooner or later we were going to give ourselves a chance to win the hockey game.”

Although they will go into Saturday’s Game 3 at Washington with a two-game advantage, the Red Wings know they were fortunate that Tikkanen failed to score on a play that could have sealed victory for the Capitals.

“I had an open net, for like three, four seconds,” said Tikkanen, one of the NHL’s all-time playoff goal scorers with 72 in his career. “I just--next time--I have to make sure that it is in.”