RED WINGS

Best moments in Joe Louis Arena history: No. 9

Detroit Free Press Staff

 

The Detroit Red Wings celebrate their win over the Chicago Blackhawks on June 11, 1995.

Approaching the Detroit Red Wings’ final game at Joe Louis Arena, we're counting down the top moments in arena history. Check out past entries: Nos. 11-20 | No. 10

No. 9: June 11-12, 1995

Midnight Special: Kozlov sends Wings to their first Cup finals in 29 years

They said it in training camp in September. They said it when the NHL lockout ended in January. They said it all season long.

The Cup. The Stanley Cup. That’s what the Wings wanted. That was their goal.

And for the first time since 1966, the Wings advanced to the championship series when Slava Kozlov eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks with a goal 2:25 into the second overtime of Game 5. Scoreless in the first four games of the Western Conference finals, Kozlov fired a low shot from the edge of the right circle that slipped between Ed Belfour’s pads for a 2-1 win.

Bedlam ensued on the ice and in the Joe’s stands. “Everybody just screamed,” Kozlov said. “To the finals!” blared the morning’s Free Press, a front page so popular, it was sold on T-shirts.

Free Press columnist Mitch Albom wrote: “So this is how you make history. You wait until after the midnight hour, double overtime, when the voices are gone and even the sweat glands are exhausted, then send a young Russian — whose last name is easier to pronounced than his first — charging down the ice, have him wind up and fire and … bingo! With a game so exhausting, it took two days to play, the Detroit Red Wings finally jumped the moat and are outside the castle, banging on the door with an octopus.

“Knock, knock, Stanley. Guess who’s coming to dinner!”

“I dreamed about this all my life,” forward Shawn Burr said. “I can’t believe it. My heart just stopped.”

“It’s unbelievable,” goalie Mike Vernon said.

Belfour, a Vezina Trophy runner-up to Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek, did everything but stand on his head the entire series. And in Game 5, he singlehandedly delayed the Wings’ celebration. The Wings outshot the Hawks, 38-14, through regulation, including 20-2 in the middle period. Their lone goal came from an ailing Steve Yzerman, who used Bob Errey as a screen and found an open spot over Belfour’s shoulder. Yzerman had missed Games 1-3 because of arthroscopic knee surgery and retreated to the locker room briefly for treatment during Game 5’s first period.

Although they went out in five games, the Blackhawks provided the Wings’ toughest competition of the abbreviated season. In 48 games, the Wings captured the Presidents’ Trophy, won 33 games and surrendered the second-fewest goals (two more than Chicago). In the playoffs, they ousted the Dallas Stars in five and swept the San Jose Sharks.

All four victories over the Blackhawks were by a single goal. One came in overtime (Nicklas Lidstrom at 1:01 in Game 1). One came in the final moments (Kris Draper at 18:15 in Game 2). Two came in double overtime (Vladimir Konstantinov at 9:25 in Game 3 and Kozlov at 2:25 in Game 5). For the series, actually, the Hawks outscored the Wings, 12-11.

Still, the Wings were 12-2 in the playoffs, with home-ice advantage against the New Jersey Devils for their first Stanley Cup finals since 1966’s six-game loss to Montreal. The underdog Devils, though, had two advantages: a hot young goalie in Martin Brodeur and the left wing lock, a perplexing defensive system that the Wings hadn’t faced because, in the shortened season, Western and Eastern teams never faced off.

The Wings could do little against the Devils’ defense. They lost Game 1, 2-1, and Game 2, 4-2. It only got worse at the Meadowlands: The Devils completed their sweep with a pair of 5-2 victories. The Wings had been outscored, 16-7. With three goals and two assists, Sergei Fedorov contributed to five of the goals. Yzerman scored only once and finished with a minus-7 rating. Lidstrom also finished minus-7. Vernon went 0-4 with a 4.08 goals-against average. Burr was benched for Games 3 and 4.

“Right now,” Yzerman said, “I don’t feel much like a Stanley Cup finalist.”

“In American sports,” defenseman Paul Coffey said, “one day, you’re on top, the next day, you’re a piece of (bleep).” He coughed. “Pardon my French.”

For the sixth time since their last Stanley Cup in 1955, the Wings failed in the championship series — and the team and its fans felt like you-know-what, in French and English.

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