Red Wings Strike Like a Hurricane

It wasn’t exactly panic time, but the Detroit Red Wings understood that they would be in trouble if they lost to Carolina in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.

After losing Game 1 Tuesday in overtime, the last thing Detroit wanted was another tight, low-scoring game against the Hurricanes. But that’s exactly what the Red Wings got, finding themselves tied with Carolina late in the third period.

Then, in a flash, Detroit broke the game open with goals from Nicklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper 13 seconds apart to give the Red Wings a 3-1 victory in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 20,058.

“We knew coming in [that Carolina was going to be tough] with the way they had played in the other series,” said Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman, whose team finished the regular season with 25 more points than the Hurricanes. “They have been very stingy, especially all through the playoffs. They haven’t given up many goals, so this was a typical game.”

After going scoreless on six power plays during the first two periods, the Red Wings finally figured out how to break through Carolina’s smothering defense and goaltender Arturs Irbe with the man advantage.

With Carolina winger Martin Gelinas in the penalty box for slashing, Lidstrom blasted home his fifth goal of the playoffs from the right circle, giving Detroit a 2-1 lead at 14:52. Carolina, which finished with 28 blocked shots compared to Detroit’s five, gave Lidstrom just enough room to sneak the puck past Irbe.

“They’re good at blocking shots and it is tough getting the puck to the net,” said Lidstrom, who played a game-high 34 minutes and 38 seconds. “Sergei [Fedorov] did a great job of getting the puck to me and I shot it high and it went in.”

In Game 1, Detroit led by a goal twice, only to have Carolina rally to tie. That didn’t happen Thursday.

On the shift after Lidstrom’s goal, Draper sneaked behind the Hurricane defense and ripped a shot past Irbe from the left wing, giving the Red Wings a commanding two-goal lead with 4:45 left.

“For 55 minutes, you didn’t know how the game was going [to end],” said Detroit goaltender Dominik Hasek, who didn’t face a lot of shots but made his 16 saves count. “It was big for us to score when we did.”

Carolina, which will play host to Game 3 on Saturday, dominated the first five minutes but was unable to capitalize on two early power-play opportunities.

With the game still scoreless, Detroit found the net first with a short-handed goal. Kirk Maltby charged into Carolina’s zone and skated into the right circle, where he blasted a goal past Irbe to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 6:13.

For the next several minutes, Detroit controlled the flow of the game and came close to taking a two-goal lead. Boyd Devereaux, Brett Hull, Steve Yzerman, Fedorov and Chris Chelios each had great scoring chances but couldn’t get the puck past Irbe.

Then with the Red Wings on a power play, Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour single-handedly tied the score with a brilliant steal and goal. Detroit defenseman Fredrik Olausson had his pass picked off by Brind’Amour outside the Red Wing blue line, and then the Hurricane veteran beat Hasek with a nifty move to tie the score at 1-1 at 14:47.

That’s how the score remained until Lidstrom’s winning goal in the third period.

“He just seems to have so much endurance with the way he plays,” Bowman said about Lidstrom, who finished with 32 shifts and four shots on goal. “We made a change on [the power play] by putting him on the umbrella on the right side. He always had a good one-timer and played a lot of right defenseman.

“It was rewarding for him to score because of the way he played. He killed penalties, played even strength and for the most part, he was out against [Ron] Francis, [Jeff] O’Neill and [Sami] Kapanen most of the night.”