Red Wings-Ducks: Detroit Heading to Western Conference Finals

Now that's how a seventh game is supposed to be played.

One night after Pittsburgh disappointed the nation with their boring Game Seven blowout of Washington, Detroit and Anaheim played a tight game that was tied until three minutes remained in what has been a great series.

Anaheim was certainly not a pushover No. 8 seed, and Detroit was a No. 2 seed that might as well have been the No. 1 seed. 

Both teams lived up to the expectations on Wednesday night, but Dan Cleary's goal with three minutes left in the third period ended up being the game-winner for Detroit.

Cleary, standing in front of Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller, redirected a pass from Henrik Zetterberg under Hiller's leg, and the goalie swept the puck into his own net for Detroit's fourth goal.

"We really had to put the dagger in that team, and that was the dagger," Cleary told The Detroit News. "We just kept coming. We didn't get frustrated, and we didn't lose focus."

Hiller was awesome for most of this series, and the post-series handshake was certainly one of mutual respect for both teams. After seven nights of beating up on each other, Detroit came out on top, though just barely. It wouldn't surprise me to see Hiller, just 27 years old, with a Vezina Trophy in his future.

Just like Washington and Pittsburgh will be fighting for conference supremacy for the next decade or more, Detroit and Anaheim look poised to compete for the Western Conference with Chicago for the next ten years.

"Best series I've been in since I've coached in the league," said Wings coach Mike Babcock in a Detroit News interview. "For sure the hardest and most even series with the least room for error, and lots of high-end players."

Game Seven could have ended early for Detroit if not for their outstanding penalty kill. The Ducks got a five-on-thre early in the first period after two Wings took penalties, but the PK unit did its best, and the score remained tied at zero.

Detroit stopped another two-man advantage in the second period. Both chances for the Ducks were missed, and that upset captain Scott Niedermayer.

“You know that right there is big,” Niedermayer told The Orange County Register. “We hadn’t had one in a while. I think since San Jose (in the first round). We just didn’t run it as smoothly as we wanted."

Detroit goalie Chris Osgood has played surprisingly well during the playoffs so far. I had been highly critical of him in the regular season, even going as far as saying Ty Conklin should start the playoffs ahead of him, but he has been as good as the Wings have needed him to be in the playoffs so far. I guess you just can't count out the importance of playoff experience for goaltenders.

We saw Simeon Varlamov and Steven Mason fall apart in their first big playoff series, but Osgood has remained tough.  He has only lost three times in the first two rounds of the playoffs, which is an incredibly admirable feat.

"I feel relief at the end," Osgood told The Detroit News. "It was a hard series, probably one of the toughest that we've played in a long time. Not that any of them are ever easy. Just the fact it was physical, and every foot was fought for. It was difficult, and it was fitting that it ended like that. There have been a lot of close games (in this series), and one team had to lose. I'm thankful it wasn't us."

Detroit took a 1-0 lead in Game Seven on a goal deflected into the net by Jiri Hudler in the first period.  They increased their lead 2-0 on a breakaway goal from Darren Helm, a man who has played in more career playoff games than regular season games.

Anaheim rebounded with a goal from Teemu Selanne, but the Wings retaliated with a Mikael Samuelsson goal just over a minute later. Anaheim got its second goal on the power play, when Corey Perry scored with three minutes left in the second period making the game 3-2. The game was tied 3-3 thanks about seven minutes into the third thanks to a tip-in from Bobby Ryan, but Cleary's goal closed the door on Anaheim.

Next up for Detroit is a tough match up in the Western Conference Finals with their Central Division rivals the Chicago Blackhawks. The Wings took four of six games from the Hawks during the regular season, and Detroit has already defeated another team from the Central Division in the playoffs, sweeping the Blue Jackets 4-0 in the first round.