Top 5: Most Influential Detroit Red Wing Playoff Goals
May 10, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Al the Octopus hangs over the ice before game game six of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Detroit Red Wings and the Anaheim Ducks at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
The Detroit Red Wing have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a record 22 straight seasons and in that have scored many goals. Today, we are taking a look at the Top 5 most influential goals during that time frame.
#5 – Nicklas Lidstrom From Center Ice
We will start with the 2002 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals, The Vancouver Canucks are leading the Detroit Red Wings in the series 2-0 and Game 3 is all tied up at 1-1.
With less than 30 second left in the game Nicklas Lidstrom carried the puck into the neutral zone and let a slap shot lose on Dan Cloutier. Cloutier misplayed the shot, the puck went into the net, and it sapped all of the energy out of the Canucks. Detroit went on to win the next 4 games and advanced to the Semifinals.
#4 – The Professor Ends The Game In Triple OT
Sticking with the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs, The Detroit Red Wings were playing the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the series was tied at one a piece heading into Game 3. Detroit could not shake Carolina despite being the clear favorite in the series, but in Game 3 that all changed.
Carolina led Game 3 after a goal 7 minutes into the third period, but Detroit roared back and Brett Hull buried a goal with less than 1:30 left in the game. The game then went into overtime, then double overtime, and finally triple overtime. Dominik Hasek and Arturs Irbe both made very crucial saves to keep their teams in the game, but with a little over 5 minute left in the game, The Professor, Igor Larionov ended the game with a deke.
The Red Wings went on to win their next 2 games and capture the Stanley Cup for the third time in six seasons.
#3 – Steve Yzerman With The Slap Shot
In 1996 the Detroit Red Wings knocked the Winnipeg Jets out of the playoffs and out of Winnipeg, but the biggest story was the series against the St. Louis Blues and Wayne Gretzky. The Red Wings won the first two games of the series, and then the Blues rattled off three consecutive wins. Detroit staved off elimination by winning game six, but the fight for the series was just beginning.
In game seven both Chris Osgood and John Casey were playing lights out and because of them zero goals were scored in regulation or in the first overtime. The game went into a second overtime, but the overtime did not last long as Steve Yzerman took the puck from Wayne Gretzky and ripped a shot past Casey.
#2 – Statue Of Liberty
We head back to 2002, but this time to the Western Conference Finals where the Red Wings were up against the former Stanley Cup Champion, Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche had just beaten the Detroit Red Wings in overtime in Game 5 and it seemed that the Red Wings would once again loss to their rivals in the Western Conference Finals.
In the First Period of Game 6 the unthinkable happened to Colorado. Steve Yzerman took a shot on net and Patrick Roy made a great save, but in an act of showboating he picked up his glove to show that he had the puck. The problem was that he did not have the puck and instead Brendan Shanahan knocked the puck into the net.
The Red Wings went on to win Game 6 and then Game 7 knocking out the Colorado Avalanche and sending them to the Wings to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
#1 – McCarty Dekes And He Scores
He we are at the most influential playoff goal and there is only one correct answer.
In 1997 the Red Wings made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in three years and were looking for their first Stanley Cup since 1955. The powerful Philadelphia Flyers were standing in Detroit’s way, but the Wings still went on to win the first three games of the series.
In Game 4 the Red Wings once again jumped out ahead of the Flyers in the first period thanks to a goal by Nicklas Lidstrom, but it was Darren McCarty who would be the hero of the game. In the second period with 7 minutes left, McCarty went down the ice with the puck, deked Janne Niinimaa and Ron Hextall, and put the puck into the net to give the Wings a 2-0 lead and a Stanley Cup.
What goal would you rank as the most influential playoff goal in recent Red Wings history?