Red Wings one win from Stanley Cup

Posted 7:01AM on Tuesday 11th June 2002 ( 23 years ago )

RALEIGH, N.C. - Dominik Hasek was the man without a Stanley Cup. Brett Hull was the man without a team. Together, they landed in Detroit - one essentially by choice, the other by chance. Now the Detroit Red Wings are within one victory of winning the only prize that would truly satisfy one of hockey's greatest talent collections. The Red Wings blended Hasek's remarkably versatile play, two more goals from the ageless Hull and Igor Larionov and a dominating defensive effort to beat Carolina 3-0 Monday night in the Stanley Cup finals. Given a boost by their three-overtime victory Saturday that potentially was the turning point of the finals, the Red Wings responded with their best game of the series to take a 3-1 lead into Game 5 Thursday night in Detroit. Now, the Stanley Cup is so close they can touch it, unless they begin to prematurely celebrate a victory over a team that's convinced it's not done. ``Really, you can't lose your edge now,'' Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman said. ``We've been in this situation before, and it really is a tough game.'' Even if Hasek, perhaps the greatest goalie in NHL history who hasn't won a Stanley Cup, is beginning to make it look easy. He needed to make only 17 saves, almost a night off by his standards, but it was the things he did that few other goalies can do that made this a benchmark performance. Hasek abandoned the net to make the breakout pass that led to Hull's 100th career playoff goal early in the second period, the play that coach Scotty Bowman believes changed the momentum of the game. ``He's a pure goal scorer,'' Bowman said. ``We just thought, if we could get that first goal ... the first goal in a game like this is big.'' Hasek also possibly prevented a goal by going to the top of the right circle, a veritable no man's land for most goalies, to poke the puck away from Erik Cole as he appeared ready to score on a rush. ``He's so good at anticipating what's going to happen in those situations,'' Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. ``He saw the guy was skating with his head down, so he came out and made a great play.'' Hasek's decisions to repeatedly leave the crease to make plays sometimes irritate his teammates. But no one can question his decision to ask Buffalo to trade him a year ago so, at age 37, he could pursue the Cup he has never won. Then, after dealing for Hasek, the Red Wings also signed Hull, who expected to stay in Dallas but didn't get a contract offer. ``I was begging my agent to call Detroit,'' Hull said. ``I just thought it would be a great fix, a great fit.'' Adding Hull to a team that already had some of the all-time leading scorers in Yzerman, Luc Robitaille and Brendan Shanahan created the kind of scoring depth few NHL teams have ever had. And then there's the 41-year-old Larionov, the NHL's oldest player on the league's oldest team. He followed his game-winning performance goal late in the third overtime of Game 3 by scoring again Monday. Between them, Larionov and Hull scored five of Detroit's six goals in their two victories in Raleigh, where the Hurricanes hoped to seize control after splitting the two games in Detroit. ``It's not easy for a team to focus on shutting down one line,'' said Shanahan, who scored the Red Wings' final goal. ``Not when you can come back at them with a 600-goal scorer on the next line and a 600-goal scorer on the line after that.'' Carolina's biggest worry - besides the 3-1 deficit, of course - is its growing inability to score. The Hurricanes don't have a goal since Jeff O'Neill scored in the third period of Game 3, a span of 127 minutes, 13 seconds in which they have been shut out by Hasek. ``We just had a hard time getting things done,'' Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. ``They played their best game of the series and we were pushing at times when we shouldn't have been and that opened up our game. And that's a dangerous thing to do against a team like Detroit.'' The Hurricanes looked ready to tie it in the second period when O'Neill's pass found a wide-open Ron Francis at the side of the net, but Francis' one-timer skidded along the goal line and struck the opposite post. ``That was a huge break for us,'' Yzerman said. ``It would have been 1-1 at that point, but it ends up being 2-0.'' Hasek went on to complete his sixth shutout of the playoffs, extending his own league record and giving him 12 for his career. ``This game was by far our best defensive game,'' Hasek said. ``The whole team deserved the shutout because it was a great defensive effort.'' By winning their third in a row in the series and their fifth in six games, the Red Wings gave themselves a chance to win a third Stanley Cup in six seasons on home ice. ``We've got to stay away from all the hoopla,'' Bowman said. ``I feel we have enough experienced guys who have been in this position.'' NOTES: The only team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in finals was Toronto in 1942, which was down 3-0 and rallied to beat Detroit. ... Hull trails Wayne Gretzky (122), Mark Messier (109) and Jari Kurri (106) in career playoff goals. ... Carolina has only 13 goals in eight games and six in the first four games of the series. ... Bowman won his record 35th career finals game, one more than former Montreal coach Toe Blake.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193682