Wings A Game Away From Sweep Detroit’s 6-1 Victory Brings Red Wings Within A Win Of Bringing Home Lord Stanley’s Cup
Steve Yzerman stood motionless on the blue line while a packed Joe Louis Arena crowd saluted him for 15 seconds.
His name hadn’t even been announced yet. It didn’t have to be.
“Stevie, Stevie, Stevie.”
He is Detroit. The Wings are his team. This was his moment. This is their year.
The Red Wings are closer to a Stanley Cup than they’ve been in 42 years.
They are 60 minutes from turning a dream into reality for their team captain, the guy who blocks shots with a five-goal lead and 5 minutes to play, the guy brought into Detroit in 1983 when the team was at rock-bottom.
The Wings defeated Philadelphia 6-1 Thursday night and could complete a four-game sweep and win their first Cup since 1955 on Saturday night at the Joe, where they have won eight straight.
“I told the players to enjoy the win for 5 minutes, then start thinking about the next game,” coach Scotty Bowman said. “We’re three-fourths of the way, that’s how I look at it.”
Since the finals went to a best-of-7 series in 1939, only one team has come back from a 3-0 deficit. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs lost three to the Wings, then won the Cup in seven games.
So what? Times have changed.
Thursday night, the 19,983 fans never let up. Yzerman and his teammates never let them.
Sergei Fedorov continued his marvelous spring as well, scoring twice and assisting two others to give him eight goals and a team-high 20 points. Martin Lapointe also scored twice.
Goalie Mike Vernon, the likely Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP, was sensational, making 21 saves and adding an assist.
But for the first time in the series Vernon yielded the opening goal.
John LeClair put in a rebound on the power play about 7 minutes into the game to extend his scoring streak to a playoffs-high 10 games. The Flyers had their first lead of the finals, but, like their five-game road-winning streak, it wouldn’t last.
The rest of the evening belonged to the Red Wings.
“That was an embarrassment,” said Flyers coach Terry Murray. “We’ve got to find a way to stop the bleeding.”
Fittingly, Yzerman scored first. Two minutes after the Flyers took the lead, Yzerman took it away with a blistering power-play slap shot.
“Stevie, Stevie, Stevie.”
Everyone cheered - the bond between player and fan never stronger. Entire sections seemed to have “Yzerman 19” on their back, from a guy wearing a Peterborough Petes sweater (Yzerman’s junior team), to little kids in T-shirts.
Yzerman is their man.
There is no doubt the agony of 1995, when the Wings were swept in the finals and Yzerman was limited to one point, burns within their hero. Yzerman has goals in all three games in these finals after scoring four in the first 16 games this spring.
He assured a win in Game 1 by stealing the Flyers’ momentum in the third period with a 60-foot slap shot, giving the Wings a two-goal lead. In Game 2 he gave the Wings another two-goal cushion, and Thursday night he sent the message his team would not be denied.
Then he passed the torch to Fedorov.
Fedorov burst into the zone, took the puck off Karl Dykhuis’ stick as he was falling, shook off Joel Otto’s check and beat goalie Ron Hextall.
They did it on defense too. Yzerman and Fedorov helped shut down the Flyers during a five-on-three power play for 1:20; Yzerman diving to smack the puck out of the zone.
“Stevie, Stevie, Stevie.”
Later the cheers were followed by another chant:
“Sweep, Sweep, Sweep.”
Red Wings 6, Flyers 1
Philadelphia 1 0 0 - 1
Detroit 3 2 1 - 6
First period-1, Philadelphia, LeClair 9 (Desjardins, Brind’Amour), 7:03 (pp). 2, Detroit, Yzerman 7 (Kozlov), 9:03 (pp). 3, Detroit, Fedorov 7, 11:05. 4, Detroit, Lapointe 3 (Brown, Fedorov), 19:00. Penalties- McCarty, Det (interference), 6:10; Desjardins, Phi (holding), 8:44; Fetisov, Det (slashing), 12:14; Sandstrom, Det (holding), 12:54; Lapointe, Det (tripping), 16:43.
Second period-5, Detroit, Fedorov 8 (Kozlov, Shanahan), 3:12 (pp). 6, Detroit, Shanahan 9 (McCarty), 19:12. Penalties-Klatt, Phi (tripping), 4:14; Petit, Phi (holding stick), 10:14.
Third period-7, Detroit, Lapointe 4 (Fedorov, Vernon), 1:08 (pp). Penalties-Lindros, Phi (cross-checking), :46; Lindros, Phi (elbowing), 8:12; McCarty, Det (interference), 8:39; Fetisov, Det (slashing), 13:02; Brown, Det (slashing), 19:41.
Shots on goal-Philadelphia 8-7-7-22. Detroit 10-12-7-29.Power-play opp.-Philadelphia 1 of 7; Detroit 3 of 5.Goalies-Philadelphia, Hextall 4-2 (29 shots-23 saves). Detroit, Vernon 15-4 (22-21).A-19,983 (19,983).
xxxx ON DECK Saturday: Philadelphia at Detroit, 5 p.m. (ESPN).