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LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Adam Deadmarsh did it again to the Detroit Red Wings. Deadmarsh scored his second goal of the game 4:48 into overtime as the Los Angeles Kings completed a stunning comeback and eliminated the Red Wings from the Western Conference quarterfinals with a 3-2 victory. After netting the tying goal midway through the third period, Deadmarsh got his second straight game-winner to send the Kings into the second round for the first time in eight years. Ziggy Palffy carried into the Red Wings' zone on a 3-on-2 and slid the puck to Jozef Stumpel, who wristed a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. Chris Osgood kicked it out, but the puck bounced once on the ice before landing on the stick of Deadmarsh, who had gotten clear of Sergei Fedorov and pushed the rebound past the goaltender for his third goal of the series. "It was definitely a nice rebound," Deadmarsh said. "I just drove the net, Stumpy took the shot and it came right on my stick. ... You always dream of that. You drive the net over and over, hoping it comes out the way it did. I was in the right place at the right time." Deadmarsh has 26 points in 29 playoff games against Detroit but only 35 points in 60 games against other opponents. After dropping the first two contests in Detroit to extend their postseason losing streak to 14 games, the Kings won four straight games in the same playoff series for the first time in team history. The comeback gained momentum in Game Four, when Los Angeles erased a three-goal deficit in the final seven minutes of regulation before winning on rookie Eric Belanger's overtime goal. "We had a tough start in Detroit. We were very disappointed to start like we did. It was frustrating," Deadmarsh said. "We made a nice comeback and we were able to win four straight, which was pretty unbelievable." The Red Wings played all but one game without center Steve Yzerman and all but two without leading scorer Brendan Shanahan. Hobbled by an ankle injury, Yzerman tried to return for Game Six but was scratched after the pregame warmup. Shanahan made an unexpected return from a broken foot in Game Five but did not make the trip For Monday's contest. "Well, it cost us the game and they have to win four," said Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman. "We're a pretty banged up team." The Red Wings, who had a 14-game first-round winning streak snapped in Game Three, failed to reach the conference semifinals for the first time since 1994. "Professionally, it is the worst feeling you can have. It's the worst thing there is," said Detroit right wing Darren McCarty. "We got beat by San Jose a few years ago and this is 10 times worse." "What do you say? When it counted, they got the goals. Whatever everybody thinks is what it is. It's not hard to figure out. We were just dumbfounded. You're just in shock. It just goes to show you, in the playoffs you need bounces to go your way and timely goals. In the first two games, we were like world-beaters, and that fell apart." Stumpel scored the only goal of the first period on the power play at 2:19, working his way along the goal line on the left side of the net before squeezing the puck past Osgood for his third goal of the series. Detroit's Pat Verbeek put a wrist shot off the right goalpost early in the second period but was credited with the tying tally on a power play at 4:20. He tried to flick a pass back to the right point, but the puck deflected off a Kings defender and skidded toward the net. Los Angeles defenseman Jere Karalahti tried to clear it but was tied up by Martin Lapointe as the puck slid off goalie Felix Potvin's right hand and into the net. McCarty put the Red Wings in front less than 2 1/2 minutes later. After coming out from behind the net, he turned in the left circle and wristed the puck under Potvin's right arm. But Deadmarsh struck again with 9:43 left in regulation. Less than two minutes after Potvin stopped Kris Draper on a breakaway, Stumpel got off a weak shot while driving to the net. Osgood pushed the puck into the slot, where Deadmarsh wristed it back between the goalie's pads. "I got a pretty fortunate bounce," Deadmarsh said. "It bounced right into the slot for me and I just put it on net and it found its way in. It was kind of the same on the next one." Each of the Kings' wins was by one goal and was decided in the third period or overtime. "Anytime you lose, you can reflect all you want, it is very difficult," said Bowman, who refused to speculate on his future. "When you lose, you always look back and say, 'I could have done this and I could have done this.' I thought in the third (period), we played well enough to win. When you lose four games by a goal, it just indicated that you are that much short." |
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