Wings Up Against The Wall

NHL

Jon Casey made 37 saves and Yuri Khmylev had a goal and an assist as the St. Louis Blues pushed the Stanley Cup favorite Detroit Red Wings to the brink of elimination with a 3-2 victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinal Sunday in Detroit.

The Red Wings, who set an NHL record with 62 regular-season victories, lost their third straight for the first time since being swept by the New Jersey Devils in last year’s finals. It also was just the fourth home loss for the Red Wings this season.

To advance to the conference finals, the Blues need only to win Tuesday at home, where they are 5-0 this season in the playoffs. If necessary, Game 7 would be played at Detroit on Thursday.

Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull also scored for the Blues. Kris Draper and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored for Detroit.

The Blues beat the Red Wings simply by using quality over quantity. While the Red Wings flooded Casey with shots from every conceivable spot and angle - although most were from outside and poor angles - St. Louis made good use of its 21 shots by taking many of them from in front, many of them in close.

And while Casey was steady in net, Detroit goalie Chris Osgood made the more spectacular saves. But Casey made a key glove save on Steve Yzerman from the right circle with 12 seconds left.

Blues 3, Red Wings 2

St. Louis 1 1 1 - 3

Detroit 0 1 1 - 2

First period-1, St. Louis, Hull 5 (Gretzky, Khmylev), 5:15. Second period-2, Detroit, Draper 3 (Lidstrom, Rouse), 3:05. 3, St. Louis, Gretzky 2 (Hull, Hudson), 18:46. Third period-4, St. Louis, Khmylev 1 (Kravchuk, Anderson), 9:11. 5, Detroit, Kozlov 4 (Larionov, Fetisov), 10:23.

Shots on goal-St. Louis 5-8-8-21. Detroit 13-13-13-39.Power-play opp.-St. Louis 0 of 4; Detroit 0 of 2.Goalies-St. Louis, Casey 6-4 (39 shots-37-saves). Detroit, Osgood 4-3 (21-18).A-19,983 (19,875).

Panthers 2, Flyers 1 (2OT)

Philadelphia

Mike Hough’s goal in the second overtime gave Florida its victory over Philadelphia and a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.

The victory was Florida’s second straight in overtime and the fourth overtime loss in the playoffs for the Flyers, who must win Game 6 in Florida Tuesday to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive.

Hough scored at 8:05 of the second overtime, wheeling around in the faceoff circle to corral a rebound, then firing a slap shot over fallen Flyers goalie Ron Hextall.

The goal seemed inevitable; the Panthers buzzed around the Philadelphia end for most of the second overtime, outshooting the Flyers 5-1.

The Panthers outshot the Flyers 12-4 in the first overtime and had several chances to win.

The best came when Philadelphia defenseman Chris Therien swept away a goal-bound shot by Bill Lindsay that had gotten past Hextall 2 minutes into the overtime.

Florida 0 0 1 01 - 2

Philadelphia 0 1 0 00 - 1

First Period-None. Second Period-1, Philadelphia, Lindros 6 (Svoboda, LeClair), 7:02 (pp). Third Period-2, Florida, Barnes 3 (Lowry, Sheppard), 2:39.

Overtime-None.

Second Overtime-3, Florida, Hough 3 (Skrudland, Hull), 8:05.

Shots on goal-Florida 7-9-9-12-4-41. Philadelphia 8-11-11-4-1-35.Power-play opp.-Florida 0 of 5; Philadelphia 1 of 4.Goalies-Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 7-3 (35 shots-34 saves). Philadelphia, Hextall 6-5 (41-39).A-17,380 (17,380).