Final-ly: Red Wings Down Stars to Head to Stanley Cup Finals

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16 years ago

In their third try, the Detroit Red Wings eliminated the Dallas Stars and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals Monday night with a 4-1 win.

After taking a 3-0 lead in the series, Detroit dropped the following two games, in which they could have finished off the Stars. In those games, the Red Wings were held to a total of two goals.

Lack of offense wouldn’t be their downfall this time, as Kris Draper got Detroit on the board just 3:45 into the game. Dallas Drake fired the puck on net from the left wing corner and it came high, bouncing off of Draper’s chin before dropping down and finding it’s way into the net as Draper whacked at it.

A Pavel Datsyuk power play goal put Detroit up by a pair with 8:19 left in the period. Nicklas Lidstrom’s long shot was stopped by Turco but Nicklas Grossman couldn’t find the rebound in his skates at the edge of the crease. Datsyuk jumped up and lifted it over Turco.

Drake added a goal of his own with 3:43 left in the first, going to the top of the crease to bang the puck past Turco when Brett Lebda threw it on net from the right wing.

The Stars looked to get back into the game with a early second period power play but Henrik Zetterberg put an end to those thoughts, picking off a pass high in the Detroit zone and racing in all alone on Turco, faking him for a shorthanded goal at 3:11. It was his second shorthanded goal of the series.

Dallas finally got on the board when Stephane Robidas beat Chris Osgood on a Dallas power play at 2:27 of the third period, blasting a shot from the top of the left circle off a feed from down low by Mike Ribeiro.

Osgood stopped 28 of 29 shots against on the night, including 15 of 16 in the third period as the Stars attempted a comeback. Turco made 25 saves on 29 shots.

Each team scored once on the power play, with Detroit getting two chances with the extra attacker and Dallas having seven tries.

The Red Wings advance to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals, beginning Saturday night in Detroit.

The Red Wings were without Chris Chelios, who missed the game with a leg injury. Andreas Lilja played in his place.