RED WINGS RIP BLACKHAWKS TO TAKE CONTROL OF SERIES

The Detroit Red Wings shot out to a 2-0 first period lead and were never seriously threatened as they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 at the United Center on Sunday afternoon.  The victory gives Detroit a 3-1 lead in the best of seven Western Conference Finals, and they can wrap up a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals with a victory in Game 6 at home on Wednesday night. 

Sports bettors who backed Detroit as a -120 road favorite cashed their tickets, and the game went OVER the 5’ total.  Detroit has now gone OVER in four of their last five games, while Chicago has gone OVER in 7 of their last 10 playoff contests.  Detroit is a hefty -235 home favorite in game five, with the total set at 5’ OV -135.  The Red Wings have won 10 of the last 13 games played on their Joe Louis Arena home ice, with seven of those games playing OVER the total (4 UNDER, 2 push). 

Injuries have taken a toll on both teams, with the Red Wings playing without Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk and the Blackhawks minus starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.  Backup goalie Cristobal Huet made his first start of the playoffs for Chicago and was ineffective, eventually splitting playing time with rookie Corey Crawford.  Huet would allow five of the six Red Wings’ goals. 

The depth of the Red Wings was apparent as they hardly missed a beat offensively despite the injuries to two of their best players.  Marian Hossa opened the scoring for Detroit at 8:41 of the first period with a shorthanded goal assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Jonathan Ericsson.  Johan Franzen would score unassisted at 19:39 to give the Red Wings a 2-0 advantage at the break.  In the second period, Detroit would quickly make it 3-0 as Valtteri Filppula scored at the 1:13 mark on the power play with assists to Hossa and Brian Rafalski.  The Blackhawks finally got on the board at 3:53 of the frame by virtue of Jonathan Toews’ power play goal assisted by Cam Barker and Patrick Kane.  Hossa would strike again just seconds later assisted by Filppula and Brett Lebda to make it 4-1.  Henrik Zetterberg scored on the power play at 7:42 of the second assisted by Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall to make it 5-1. Zetterberg would cap the scoring at 12:47 of the second period with another power play goal set up by Rafalski and Kronwall once again.

Blackhawks’ coach Joel  Quenneville was obviously at a loss to explain his team’s collapse as he fixated on the late first period penalty call that set up the Wings’ third goal:

"I think we witnessed probably the worst call in the history of sports there. You know, they scored, it's 3-0. They ruined a good hockey game and absolutely destroyed what was going on on the ice. It was a call that could. ... never seen anything like it."

The inexperience of the Blackhawks has been evident during this series, while the experience and poise of Detroit has also been on clear display. The Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg suggested that maintaining this focus and control was a priority for the game:

"We tried to keep our poise. We knew they were coming. They didn't basically have anything else to do once the game kind of ran away.”

In the Eastern Conference Finals, Pittsburgh has taken a 3-0 lead on the Carolina Hurricanes meaning that barring a historic comeback the Stanley Cup Finals will feature a rematch of last year’s championship series.  Detroit defeated Pittsburgh in six games to win the 2008 Stanley Cup.