Long Shot Eliminates Longshots

DETROIT —  Seven games and 21 minutes into their Western Conference playoff series, there were few ways the Detroit Red Wings or St. Louis Blues could surprise each other.

Detroit center Steve Yzerman on Thursday found what may have been the single remaining element of surprise--and because of his quick thinking, the Red Wings staved off elimination for the second straight game and advanced to the conference finals.

Yzerman, known for his playmaking and his wizardry around the net, took an uncharacteristically long shot from just over the blue line and rifled it past Blues goalie Jon Casey at 1:15 of the second overtime, giving Detroit a 1-0 victory and a winning 4-3 edge in a splendid series that belied the 51-point gulf that separated the league-leading Red Wings from the Blues this season.

“I was just surprised it went in,” said Yzerman, whose goal set off roars from the sellout crowd of 19,893 at Joe Louis Arena. “I don’t score a whole lot of goals from out there. I don’t generally shoot from out there.”

Detroit, which had the best record in the league this season, will face the Colorado Avalanche--which had the second-best record in the West--beginning Sunday at home. “I’m excited but I’m too emotionally drained to do cartwheels,” defenseman Paul Coffey said.

Yzerman, who had 11 points in the series and excelled defensively, took possession of the puck in the neutral zone after Blues center Wayne Gretzky couldn’t control it.

“I didn’t think he was a threat,” St. Louis defenseman Al MacInnis said of Yzerman. “He shot it from just inside the blue line. Things happen so quick out there. If I’m not mistaken it went off the crossbar and my defense partner [Murray Baron] might have screened [Casey]. Things happen so quick out there.”

Said Gretzky: “Steve got the puck, and I was trying to pick up the third guy. Steve shot and it went in. . . . Sometimes in sports you hope that there’s not a loser. I thought we played hard throughout the series. We did more than a lot of people expected us to. I’m disappointed because we came up one goal short.”

Yzerman’s shot was the Red Wings’ 40th on Casey, whom Blues Coach Mike Keenan claimed might be hampered by a strained neck Casey suffered when he was bowled over by Detroit’s Darren McCarty in Game 6. However, Casey showed no ill effects; from the second minute of the game, when he made consecutive saves on Igor Larionov with his pad and his arm, to the first minute of the second overtime, when he stopped a tip-in attempt by Sergei Fedorov, Casey was impressive.

“He really came in and did a great job for us,” Keenan said. “It was a great defensive battle tonight. It was a tough game to lose.”

Of the 85 playoff series that have gone to a seventh game, this was the 23rd to be resolved in overtime. That it went this far, after the Blues won the middle three games, was a testimony to the Red Wings’ resolve, which hadn’t often been tested during a record-setting 62-victory season.

Faced with the Blues’ persistent checking and ability to clog the slot, the Red Wings changed their lines and their game plan and improvised, as with Yzerman’s long-range blast. Although they had romped through the season and were accustomed to playing with large leads, they played five one-goal games in this series, winning two.

“Somebody said in the locker room before the first overtime, ‘We’re being tested here, guys. Let’s continue to play the way we were,”’ Detroit winger Dino Ciccarelli said. “That made a lot of sense. It was a test of character and we didn’t let it slip away. We maintained our focus.”

The Blues’ focus was strong too. Red Wing goalie Chris Osgood had to make 29 saves, including eight in the first overtime during a St. Louis push. “We felt we could win this thing. It’s never a consolation to play well and finish second in a series,” MacInnis said. “We wanted to go on and win the Stanley Cup. Mike came here to build a Stanley Cup-winning team, and until we do, I don’t think anybody here is going to be happy.”

Gretzky will become a free agent July 1, and his agent, Mike Barnett, said Thursday that he had not spoken to the Blues’ management about a new contract since shortly before the playoffs began. His future remains unclear, but the recent past took precedence in Gretzky’s mind Thursday.

“They have a great team, with guys like Yzerman, Coffey and Fedorov, and I hope they win it,” he said.