Detroit Completes Its Comeback, 6-4

The Detroit Red Wings let the Vancouver Canucks back into Game 6, but they didn’t let them back into the series.

Nicklas Lidstrom and Brett Hull scored short-handed goals 30 seconds apart in the second period as the Red Wings eliminated the Canucks with a 6-4 victory Saturday at Vancouver, Canada.

“They’re such a good team that you don’t want to give them a chance to beat you,” said Hull, who added two more goals as the Red Wings completed their comeback from a 2-0 series deficit and avoided a Game 7 in Detroit on Monday.

Vancouver rallied from an early 2-0 deficit in the first period and was on a power play looking for its first lead since Game 2. But Detroit’s Kris Draper snared the puck and went hard to the net on a short-handed rush. He was stopped, but he collided with goalie Peter Skudra, and Lidstrom fired the loose puck into the net with the goalie on the ice.

“That is basically the game,” said Hull, who doubled the Detroit lead when Chris Chelios sprung him on a breakaway during the same Vancouver power play. “That really got our momentum going.”

Carolina 1, New Jersey 0--Ron Francis scored on a second-period power play and Kevin Weekes made 32 saves as the Hurricanes eliminated the two-time defending Eastern Conference champion at East Rutherford, N.J.

It was only the second series victory in franchise history and it ended a streak of nine consecutive series losses. The only other series the franchise won was a three-game sweep of Quebec in 1986, when the team was the Hartford Whalers.

Montreal 2, Boston 1--Richard Zednik is at home, resting, and the other Canadiens knew that if they tried to get even for the injury that put him there they would soon be joining him.

“I think both teams are smart enough and disciplined enough that they know what’s at stake here,” defenseman Sheldon Souray said after the Canadiens took a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series at Boston.

“We haven’t forgotten what happened, but we aren’t going to throw away the season because we’re trying to exact revenge.”

Jose Theodore stopped 43 shots as the Canadians moved within a game of advancing to the second round. Boston, which finished the regular season with the best record in the Eastern Conference, will face elimination Monday in Montreal.

On the day that Zednik was released from the hospital--and Bruin defenseman Kyle McLaren had a disciplinary hearing for the hit that put him there--both teams played with discipline and put aside the harsh words that threatened to turn the game into a rumble.

McLaren, who has been suspended indefinitely, met with NHL discipline dean Colin Campbell before the game and declined comment afterward. The league said a decision on the length of the suspension would not be released immediately.