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Stanley Cup Notebook Courageous captain Yzerman leads Red Wings to brink of titlePosted: Thursday June 13, 2002 7:17 PMUpdated: Thursday June 13, 2002 7:19 PM DETROIT (AP) -- When the Detroit Red Wings -- a team assembled for the sole purpose of winning the Stanley Cup -- lost the first two games of their opening round series with Vancouver, Steve Yzerman led his team back. A spirited locker room pep talk after a 5-2 loss in Game 2 and some inspired play by a man known in Hockeytown simply as 'The Captain' propelled Detroit to win the series in six games. Skating on a ravaged right knee that will require offseason surgery, the 37-year-old has helped the Wings to the brink of their third title in six years. "It's tough to measure what he means to our team because he means so much on the ice," Kirk Maltby said. "He's always in the right place, and he always makes the right play. "Off the ice, he leads by example, unless something needs to be said, then he'll say something." Yzerman had three goals and five assists against Vancouver, and his 21 points are second in overall playoff scoring behind Colorado's Peter Forsberg. Yzerman, who starred for Canada's goal medal-winning team at the Salt Lake City Olympics and sat out stretches of the second half of the regular season because of the injury, said he is having fun in the postseason despite the pressure to win and the wear and tear on his knee. "It has been kind of an enjoyable year that everybody has played pretty hard and played competitively," Yzerman said. "Guys have gotten along very well to this point and remained pretty well focused on trying to win this thing." If Detroit wins the Cup for a third time, he will surpass the number won by many of his superstar peers, notably Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic and Scott Stevens. Crunch timeCarolina has gained a reputation for playing well when in tough situations this postseason. The Hurricanes are 7-2 in overtime games. The seven wins and nine games are second all-time to the 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens. When Carolina found itself tied 2-2 in its opening-round series with New Jersey, it won two straight to take the series. And down 2-1 in the conference semifinals with Montreal, the Hurricanes won three in a row. "We rely on what we have relied on all year, and that's great leadership that we do have in the room, try to build a little bit of a positive feeling," coach Paul Maurice said. "At the same time, try to keep a certain amount of that sense of urgency which is so important in this game." Rod Brind'Amour, who is tied for third on the team with 12 playoff points, said the Hurricanes 'let it loose' when they're in a tough situation. "I think there's probably less pressure now, less tension maybe, than there has been," he said. "We can throw everything at them." Let 'em goMuch has been made of Detroit's efforts in the offseason to construct a Cup winner through trades and free agent signings. Carolina coach Paul Maurice said he didn't mind that the Wings snapped up Dominik Hasek, Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull. "I was really happy because none of those guys were coming to the Eastern Conference," Maurice said. "But you knew why they built this team in the manner in which they did. But we didn't spend a whole lot of time. "We were always looking at guys that were coming east instead of guys going west." Detroit's $64 million payroll is double that of the Hurricanes. One-timers: Of the 19 Red Wings who played in Game 1, only five had never played in a finals game: Steve Duchesne, Jiri Fischer, Fredrik Olausson, Boyd Devereaux and Pavel Datsyuk. ... Thursday was the fifth anniversary of the limousine accident that left Detroit defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov with severe brain trauma and ended his career as a player. ... Detroit has stepped up its penalty-killing of late, not allowing a goal in 34 of the last 35 times it was down a man over the previous eight games. In the 14 games before that, the Red Wings killed 54 of 66 penalties. |
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