Red Wings to play for Cup

The journey that took the Chicago Blackhawks through two head coaches, a game played outdoors on a baseball field and into the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1995 has come to an end.

The Detroit Red Wings eliminated Chicago from the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 2-1 overtime victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena. The Wings won the series, 4-1, and advanced to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in a rematch of last year’s Stanley Cup finals, won by Detroit.

Cristobal Huet, starting in goal for the Hawks in place of injured Nikolai Khabibulin, was stellar, making 44 saves. But he was outdueled by the Wings’ Chris Osgood, who had 30 saves.

Darren Helm had the winning goal 3 minutes 58 seconds into overtime. Dan Cleary’s goal at the 6:08 mark of the third period had given Detroit a 1-0 lead, but Patrick Kane tied it with 7:07 remaining in the period to send the game into the extra period.

Cleary’s goal came on the Wings’ 34th shot of the game. He redirected a shot by Brett Lebda from inside the blue line.

“It’s tough to admit, you’ve got to give them credit for being the better team in this series,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said.

Huet was up to the task in the opening period, steering aside 21 Detroit shots, including good chances from Mikael Samuelsson, Marian Hossa and Lebda.

Osgood was perfect on nine Chicago shots and came up with the save of the period when he halted an attempt from Colin Fraser in front after a terrific pass from Kane set up his teammate.

The veteran goalies stood firm in the second period as well. Fraser was denied on his second excellent chance of the game by Osgood early in the period, and the goalie later stopped Patrick Sharp from in close.

Fraser had another excellent opportunity in the opening minute of the third, but again Osgood came up big.

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ckuc@tribune.com