Detroit Red Wings Hockey Team

It's either the scourge of the NHL or a stroke of genius. It's either "destroy hockey," as Detroit Red Wing defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov disdainfully called it, or the ultimate strategy because its success depends on the discipline and selflessness of every player. It's the New Jersey Devils' neutral zone trap, and no one who has seen it during the team's march to the Stanley Cup finals remains neutral about it.

It's the game they played on rutted roads while the light faded and their toes grew numb, the scenario they imagined as kids in Slovakia, Sweden, Saskatchewan, Syosset, N.Y., Sverdlovsk, Russia, and Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, tonight at Joe Louis Arena, between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. It's a shot at hockey immortality, to have your name inscribed on the Cup to be traced by envious eyes and timid fingertips.

The ice condition was perfect . . . for blended margaritas. A quorum of NHL officials huddled between periods, discussing whether the game should be postponed or continued. The players, exhausted, their jerseys soaked with sweat, pushed themselves on. It was Game 1 of the 1936 Stanley Cup semifinals. For 176 minutes 30 seconds, the equivalent of nearly three hockey games, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Maroons skated, wearily, into NHL history.

The Pittsburgh Penguins weren't about to go quietly. After watching the Detroit Red Wings celebrate on their home ice a year ago, the Penguins this time held serve at home in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals rematch to record a 2-1 victory at Mellon Arena on Tuesday night. The win in front of 17,132 fans, most wearing white T-shirts and waving white towels, evened the best-of-seven series at 3-3 and set up a Game 7 showdown for the NHL championship in Detroit on Friday night.

The departure of Sergei Fedorov to the Detroit Red Wings means the "future is not so good" for Soviet relations with the National Hockey League, a Soviet hockey official said. Assistant coach Igor Dmitriev said the team no longer expects Fedorov to return before Saturday, when the Soviets face West Germany in their first Goodwill Games match. Without Fedorov, 20, the defending world champions are now "a team like any other team," Dmitriev said.

Narrowing their focus to the short-term and the rare chance to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the Detroit Red Wings acquired three-time Norris Trophy winner Chris Chelios, veteran winger Wendel Clark, goaltender Bill Ranford and bruising defenseman Ulf Samuelsson in the boldest of the league-record 21 trades made Tuesday before the NHL's trading deadline.

The Mike Keenan dispute was resolved Sunday night in a complicated settlement announced by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Keenan, who coached the New York Rangers to their first Stanley Cup title in 54 years before bolting for the St. Louis Blues, was suspended for 60 days and fined $100,000. The Blues and Detroit Red Wings were fined, and the Rangers and Blues completed a trade approved by Bettman.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins' season was ticking away. Champagne was being delivered to the Detroit Red Wings' locker room at Joe Louis Arena and the Stanley Cup had been polished to a blinding shine. In the first defining moment for a young team, Maxime Talbot -- on the ice in place of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, brought the Penguins even with 34.3 seconds left in the third period by scoring a tenacious, second-effort goal.

DETROIT -- It's not enough that the Detroit Red Wings have shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins twice, held them without a shot on goal for the first 12 minutes Monday and are making a mockery of a Stanley Cup finals that was supposed to win over millions of hockey neophytes. The Red Wings, 3-0 victors at Joe Louis Arena and owners of a 2-0 series lead, believe they can raise their game. That's not what the Penguins needed to hear as they try to avoid utter embarrassment Wednesday at Pittsburgh.

Now what? What do the Mighty Ducks try next? It isn't difficult to figure out what has gone wrong for the overmatched Ducks in the first two games of their opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings. Fixing it in time for Game 3 Sunday at the Arrowhead Pond is another matter. The Ducks headed home Friday night trailing the best-of-seven series two games to none after a 5-1 thumping before a sellout crowd of 19,983 at Joe Louis Arena.

Marc-Andre Fleury's grin was visible through the slats of his mask, a smile as wide as the net he protected so staunchly when circumstances demanded he be as close to perfect as a goaltender can be. Fleury's resilience and skill in the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2-1 victory Tuesday at Mellon Arena are the reasons the Stanley Cup was returned to its packing case after it was polished instead of going home with the Red Wings.

The last coach to win a playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings takes pride in that distinction, and he should. With Detroit poised to win its second straight Stanley Cup championship tonight with a victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Mellon Arena, Randy Carlyle might hold on to that honor for a while. Carlyle's Ducks defeated the Red Wings in the 2007 Western Conference finals before defeating Ottawa to win the Cup.

The Penguins grew up Thursday, making the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings look old and spent in a game that might trigger the beginning of the end of Detroit's dynasty. The Penguins' young legs carried them to successful two-on-one rushes, a power-play goal and the first short-handed goal scored against Detroit in 20 playoff games this spring.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had enough of history repeating itself. Meeting the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals for the second year in a row, the Penguins had lost the first two games on the road before winning Game 3 at Mellon Arena -- just like last year. Consider history rewritten as instead of falling in Game 4 the way they did a year ago, the Penguins beat the Red Wings, 4-2. on Thursday night to even the best-of-seven series at 2-2. Game 5 will be Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

They had superstars block shots and support players score goals, meaning that the Pittsburgh Penguins essentially turned themselves inside out Tuesday to defeat the Detroit Red Wings and claw their way back into the Stanley Cup finals.

The Pittsburgh Penguins got themselves back into their Stanley Cup finals series against the Detroit Red Wings with a 4-2 victory in Game 3 at Mellon Arena on Tuesday night. The win, in front of a crowd of 17,123, cut the Red Wings' lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1 with Game 4 on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are attempting to become just the fourth team in NHL history to rebound from an 0-2 deficit and win the Cup.

The NHL announced the schedule for the first round of the playoffs. The Ducks will play at Detroit on Wednesday and Friday. Games 3 and 4 will be at the Pond on Sunday and Tuesday, April 27. Game 5, if necessary, will be at Detroit on April 29, Game 6, if necessary, at the Pond on May 2 and Game 7, if necessary, at Detroit on May 4.

Down but defiant, the Mighty Ducks vowed Monday to prolong their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 tonight at the Arrowhead Pond. Or to be more precise, they hoped to make it as tough as possible on the Red Wings. Down three games to none in this best-of-seven series, no one was bold enough to predict a victory.

So it wasn't exactly the way Dan Cleary envisioned it as a kid on skates, dreaming big dreams, picturing scoring the winning goal in a pivotal Game 7. In overtime. Well, he was three minutes ahead of the dream scenario. Cleary, though, he wasn't about to quibble with a premature ending in the second round of the playoffs.

One goal short. That will prey on the Ducks' minds, that they had come back from oblivion in March and rallied twice against Detroit on Thursday but fell one goal short of advancing to the Western Conference finals. The Red Wings' pervasive grit, maybe more than their dazzling skill, was the difference in a 4-3 victory that decided a riveting seven-game series between the last two Stanley Cup champions. The Ducks' resilience, though admirable, could not compensate for that.