Game o' the Day

Lapointe Bags Duck
By Michael Dell, editor-in-chief

Martin Lapointe scored 59 seconds into overtime, giving the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 win in the opening game of their second-round series with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Mike Vernon was once again in net for Detroit, making 19 saves to post the win, although Guy Hebert was just as strong in stopping 28 shots for the water fowl.
The game was scoreless until the 19-minute mark of the second period, when Paul Kariya scored his sixth goal of the postseason to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. Anaheim was working the man- advantage, with Kirk Maltby in the box for cross-checking. Ducks defenseman Darren Van Impe launched a slap shot from the point that Vernon stopped, but Kariya found the rebound in the slot and buried it with a quick wrister. Kariya's six goals ties him for the playoff lead with Phoenix's Keith Tkachuk and Colorado's Claude Lemieux.
The Ducks held the lead until midway through the third period, but surrendered it when Sergei Fedorov finally lit his first playoff lamp. Fedorov, who went without a goal against St. Louis in the first round, played his best game of the postseason, looking confident with the puck and commanding respect. On his goal, however, he was the beneficiary of a great play by Tomas Sandstrom. The Swedish winger drove down the right side and circled behind the net, wrapping a pass in front to Fedorov coming late down the slot. Nike's long-haired Russian freak boy wasted little time in depositing a quick snap shot behind Hebert to tie the game at 11:01.
Despite the Wings gaining momentum from the Fedorov goal, Hebert managed to keep them off the board the rest of the way and force overtime. Good ol' Sergei almost ended it in regulation after a faceoff in Anaheim's end, drilling a heavy slap shot from the top of the right circle that Hebert barely managed to smother with his left pad. Quack, quack, quack... nice save, dude.
Interviewed before the game, Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said he prefers to attack during overtime and his club certainly kept with the plan. Less than a minute after the extra session started, Lapointe sent the fans at Joe Louis Arena into a frenzy by converting a two-on-one with Brendan Shanahan.
The game-winning play started with a turnover in the neutral zone. Anaheim's Dmitri Mironov cut off a Shanahan clearing attempt just outside the Detroit stripe. The only problem was that the Russian blueliner was caught flat-footed along the boards with no place to go. Not wanting to dump the puck back in before his teammates could clear the zone, which would have brought an intentional off-side call, Mironov tried to toy with the puck along the wall, hoping to buy some time. That's when Lapointe roughed him up and knocked him to the ice from behind. Mironov still tried to cover the puck, but Larry Murphy stepped in and started digging like a chimp, eventually working the biscuit free to Shanahan on the left wing.
Shanny motored around Bobby Dollas, who also got caught on the play, leaving Kariya as the only man back for the Ducks. Shanahan waited long enough to let Lapointe get in position on the right side and then floated a perfect saucer pass over Kariya's stick. Lapointe finished it off with a swell one-timer that found Hebert's five-hole as the netminder was moving side to side. The goal was Lapointe's first of the playoffs and just the second of his postseason career.
This series should prove to be a low-scoring one, with both teams favoring patient defensive styles. The Ducks played a strong game, but they made a mistake at the wrong time and it cost them. Even though they lost, the water fowl have to be happy with how they competed with the highly-favored Wings.
As for Detroit, the boys in red succeeded in shutting down Teemu Selanne. The Finnish Flash had just two shots on net, struggling to fight through the constant checking applied by the winged wheel.

Impressive Performances

ANAHEIM
Guy Hebert (28 saves): Guy held up his end of the bargain. At his best, he gives the Ducks the edge in goal. If he keeps playing like this Anaheim will have a shot at the upset.
DETROIT
Sergei Fedorov (1-0-1): Fedorov was the best player on the ice.
Brendan Shanahan (0-1-1): Shanny wasn't all that great in regulation, but he came through with the big play in overtime. The pass he gave to Lapointe was just perfect. Not a lot of guys can put a 15-20 foot saucer pass right on the tape while on the fly, but I'll be damned if Shanny didn't do it.

Wacky Game Fact

Prior to the loss, the Ducks had been undefeated in overtime this season with a record of 4-0-13, including an OT win against Phoenix in Round One.

Injuries

Detroit defenseman Aaron Ward appeared to hurt himself late in the game. Ward tried to deliver a check along the boards and came away holding his face. Not sure what happened to him. Maybe he just remembered he left the oven on at home...

Lines

Anaheim
OFFENSE
Kariya - Rucchin - Selanne
Sacco - Kurri - Bellows
Rychel - Janssens - Drury
Baumgartner - Pronger - Park
DEFENSE
Dollas - Trebil
Daigneault - Van Impe
Mironov - Karpa
POWER PLAY
Selanne - Rucchin - Bellows - Daigneault - Mironov
Sacco - Kurri - Bellows - Dollas - Trebil
SHORT-HANDED
Kariya - Rucchin - Dollas - Trebil
Selanne - Kurri - Mironov - Karpa
Detroit: Bowman always juggles his lines. He started the game playing exclusively three lines, the top three listed below. As the game wore on he began to move people around, breaking up the Russians and playing Igor Larionov with Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, while Fedorov centered either Tomas Sandstrom and Doug Brown, or Martin Lapointe and Slava Kozlov. Joey Kocur was the extra forward.
OFFENSE
Shanahan - Yzerman - Sandstrom
Kozlov - Fedorov - Larionov
Maltby - Draper - McCarty
Brown
Kocur
DEFENSE
Lidstrom - Rouse
Konstantinov - Fetisov
Murphy - Ward
POWER PLAY
Kozlov - Fedorov - Larionov - Konstantinov - Fetisov
Shanahan - Yzerman - Sandstrom - Murphy - Lidstrom
SHORT-HANDED
Yzerman - Sandstrom - Konstantinov - Fetisov
Fedorov - Brown - Lidstrom - Rouse
Draper - Maltby

Other Friday Scores

New York lost at New Jersey, 2-0: Martin Brodeur stopped 21 shots to earn his second straight shutout and give the Devils a 1-0 series lead over the Rangers. Scott Niedermayer (2) and John MacLean (4) scored for El Diablo, with MacLean's coming into an empty-net.
Edmonton lost at Colorado, 5-1: The Avalanche grabbed a 1-0 series lead, beating Curtis Joseph five times on 37 shots. Peter Forsberg led the offensive assault with two goals (3,4) and an assist. The other goals were provided by Eric Lacroix (1), Sandis Ozolinsh (3), and Claude Lemieux (6), who is now tied for the playoff lead in goal-scoring. Joe Sakic continued to rack up points, bagging three assists. Colorado's captain has scored in seven straight games and leads the league with 15 points.
Patrick Roy sabotaged his own shutout bid at 4:00 of the second period by giving the puck to Kelly Buchberger in the slot on an errant clearing attempt. For some reason Roy, who was caught out on the right side of his net, tried to go right back up the middle with the puck. Before Roy could recover, Buchberger knocked it down and hammered a slap shot home for his third of the playoffs.
In case you're wondering, this Edmonton-Colorado series will be, without a doubt, the most entertaining series of the playoffs. That is as long as you like wide-open, fast-paced, offensive hockey at its best. This is the one, folks. Don't miss it. Forget about that New Jersey-neutral-zone-trap garbage, Edmonton-Colorado is where it's at.