NHL PLAYOFFS : Red Wings Eliminate North Stars

The Detroit Red Wings, behind the goaltending of Tim Cheveldae, became only the ninth team in NHL history to overcome a 3-1 deficit when they eliminated the Minnesota North Stars with a 5-2 victory in the seventh game of the Norris Division semifinals Thursday night at Detroit.

The Red Wings will open a best-of-seven series against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena for the division title.

It was the second time the Red Wings had overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series. They rallied to oust Toronto in the 1987 division finals.

Sergei Fedorov, Alan Kerr and Gerard Gallant each scored in the second period to take the Red Wings to a 3-0 lead. Bob Probert and Shawn Burr scored in the third period.

Brian Bellows stopped Cheveldae’s string of scoreless playoff minutes, which included shutouts in Games 5 and 6, at 18:36 with a third-period power-play goal. Minnesota’s Mike Craig closed out the scoring with 51 seconds left in the game.

Minnesota goalie Jon Casey, whose hot hand took the surprising North Stars to the Stanley Cup finals a year ago, also played well. But he was no match for the determined Red Wings, who finished first in the division, 28 points ahead of the fourth-place North Stars.

Casey handled 31 shots, Cheveldae 31.

This was the 14th time in their history the Red Wings were playing a seventh game in a playoff series. They were 8-5 in the previous 13 attempts, but 7-2 at home. It was the seventh time the North Stars were playing a seventh game in a playoff series. They were 3-3 in the previous six attempts, 1-2 on the road.

Fedorov’s fifth goal, on a power play, came from directly in front of the net on a pass from Kevin Miller. The shot was high on Casey’s glove side, just inside the post at 11:04 while Chris Dahlquist was off for holding Paul Ysebaert.

Vancouver 5, Winnipeg 0--Geoff Courtnall had a hat trick at Vancouver as the Canucks also came back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Jets. Vancouver will meet Edmonton on Sunday in the first game of that best-of-seven series.