Hockey Today
SCOREBOARD
Monday, May 25
No games scheduled. The Pittsburgh Penguins will have a chance to sweep the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night. In the West, the Detroit Red Wings can advance to the Stanley Cup finals with a home win over Chicago on Wednesday night.
STARS
Sunday
— Marian Hossa(notes) and Henrik Zetterberg(notes), Red Wings, scored two goals each and Detroit routed the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1 to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
STILL STRONG
Even without star defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom(notes) and top forward Pavel Datsyuk(notes), the Red Wings routed the Blackhawks 6-1 on Sunday and moved within one win of returning to the Stanley Cup finals. Lidstrom sat out due to a lower body injury, while Datsyuk missed his second straight game because of a sore foot. Kris Draper(notes) also was out of the lineup for Detroit, which activated defenseman Chris Chelios(notes) for the first time in the series. The defending Cup champions lead the Western Conference finals 3-1 and can advance with a win at home on Wednesday night.
SITTING OUT
The Blackhawks were without top goalie Nikolai Khabibulin(notes) during Sunday’s 6-1 home loss to the Red Wings that left Chicago on the verge of being eliminated from the Western Conference finals. Cristobal Huet(notes), making his first start of the playoffs, gave up four goals and was pulled in the second period. Rookie Corey Crawford(notes) took over for the last 15:55 of the period, but Huet returned in the third and gave up Henrik Zetterberg’s second power-play goal that made it 6-1. Huet stopped 21 of 26 shots overall in the loss that left the Blackhawks trailing the best-of-seven series 3-1.
SUITING UP
Chicago RW Martin Havlat(notes), forced out of Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Friday night following a hard hit from Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall(notes), got a rousing ovation from the home crowd when he was introduced into the Blackhawks lineup for Game 4 on Sunday. His playing status was unclear Saturday when he didn’t practice, but his presence didn’t help Sunday as Chicago was routed 6-1. Kronwall, ejected for the hit on Friday, was booed every time he touched the puck Sunday.
SCOUTING
Adam Henrique, Dale Mitchell(notes) and Rob Kwiet scored in the first seven minutes, and the Windsor Spitfires won the Memorial Cup championship with a 4-1 win over the Kelowna Rockets on Sunday. Ryan Ellis also scored for Windsor, which lost its first two games of the tournament before winning four straight. Windsor is the first Ontario Hockey League club to win the Memorial Cup since the London Knights in 2005. The Western Hockey League captured the Cup in 2007 (Vancouver) and 2008 (Spokane).
SPEAKING
“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.”—Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg of the frustrated and penalty-prone Blackhawks, who were routed 6-1 in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday. Chicago, which trails the best-of-seven series 3-1, had been upset after Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall flattened Blackhawks forward Martin Havlat with a hard hit on Friday and drove him out of Game 3.