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 Battle royal Yzerman's hat trick lifts Red Wings past Ducks 5-3
Posted: Tuesday May 04, 1999 01:15 PM
DETROIT (AP) -- The Detroit Red Wings checked, whacked and mauled their way to a 5-3 playoff victory over Anaheim on Wednesday night, with Steve Yzerman scoring three goals. "It was a physical game. There were some bangs out there," Detroit forward Brendan Shanahan said. "We were yelling for some calls; they were yelling for some calls." The hardest hit for the Mighty Ducks was self-inflicted. Goaltender Guy Hebert was injured midway through the game when Brendan Shanahan, driving to the net, was hit hard by Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei and sent flying. His skate clipped Hebert on the top left of his mask and he was forced to leave at 9:33 with the Red Wings leading 3-2. The Red Wings scored twice off backup goalie Tom Askey, an emergency call-up when Dominic Roussel came down with the flu. But Hebert was just shaken up and will play Friday, Ducks coach Craig Hartsburg said. "He's fine. He was a little dazed, but it's nothing serious," he said. The Red Wings, attempting to become the first team to win three straight Stanley Cups since the New York Islanders won four in a row from 1980-83, host the Ducks again Friday before the best-of-7 series moves to Anaheim for Game 3 Sunday. "It was a pretty good start," Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios said. Wendel Clark, acquired at the trade deadline, added a goal and an assist and Doug Brown also scored. Paul Kariya had a goal and two assists, and Marty McInnis and Teemu Selanne scored for the Ducks, who were outshot 37-29. "It's actually an encouraging sign that we hung as tough as we did with several guys who didn't play nearly as well as they are capable," Hartsburg said. Yzerman, the MVP of the playoffs a year ago, already appeared in mid-playoff form with a nasty gash over his left eye and creating numerous scoring chances. The first two goals came from just outside the crease and the final with 78 seconds left was all hustle. "That's Stevie," Shanahan said. "It's not about speeches or anything like that. He goes out and does it on the ice. That's why he's the leader he is." The first tied the game at 1-1 at 11:06 of the first period. A slap shot by Nicklas Lidstrom was just wide right, but it bounced off the end boards to Yzerman, who slid it between the post and Hebert's pad just before Salei flattened him. His second came just 31 seconds into the second period. A slap shot from Shanahan at the left point hit Detroit left wing Tomas Holmstrom and bounced straight to Yzerman, who fired it in. He put it away with 1:18 left when he and Selanne were racing for the puck and he bumped him off it. Askey had come far out of the net to try to help and Yzerman skated to his right and put it just inside the right post. "He's an unbelieveable player," Kariya said. "He's always been a tremendous scorer but now he plays that well on both ends of the ice. He sees the game as well as anyone in the league." Yzerman had several other scoring chances, getting three good shots on Hebert in a span of 20 seconds late in the first period. Hebert stopped a slap shot, but the rebound went to Yzerman, who got a strong backhander that Hebert again stopped. He had a one-timer again seconds later but this time Hebert smothered it. Kariya, who along with Selanne found little open ice against the Red Wings, cut the lead to 3-2 just 1:14 after Yzerman's second goal, beating Detroit goalie Chris Osgood with a slap shot from the top of the right circle. Clark, who scored the Red Wings' first goal after picking up a lost puck, set up Brown's goal off Askey at 16:49 of the second. He passed from behind the net and Brown backhanded it in. The Ducks cut the lead to one again at 13:03 of the third when Selanne, who didn't have a shot through the first two periods, took a pass from Kariya from the side of the net and fired it in. "Teemu can certainly play better than that. ... Teemu didn't play badly but he knows he's got to do more than he did tonight," Hartsburg said. It took less than a minute for the game to get rough, with Detroit right wing Darren McCarty knocking down Johan Davidsson in the right corner and then racing across the ice and delivering a hard hit on Kevin Haller. By the end of the first period Yzerman and Ducks defenseman Jason Marshall had gashes over their eyes and Kariya, who came the closest he's ever come to a fight in Anaheim's regular-season finale, got into a shoving match with Red Wings agitator Kirk Maltby. "They were awesome in the first period, but we expected that. They're the defending champs and this was their first playoff game at home. We hung in there and gave ourselves a chance to win," Hartsburg said. It was the Red Wings who got the better of the hits throughout the game. McCarty knocked down Ducks defenseman Frederik Olausson and Ulf Samuelsson tackled a rushing Travis Green. "Overall, it wasn't a wide-open game," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. "There weren't a lot of opportunities."
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