DETROIT — The Red Wings were pushed to the brink of elimination on home ice by the Ducks.
Dan Cleary came through, though, scoring a tiebreaking goal with three minutes left to lift Detroit to a 4-3 victory Thursday night and send the defending Stanley Cup champions to the Western Conference finals for the third year in a row.
“Most teams that have won the Stanley Cup don’t even get here,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “For us to be in this situation is a real positive, but we have a hungry Chicago team waiting for us.”
Detroit will host the Blackhawks in Game 1 on Sunday, matching up the Original Six teams in the playoffs for the first time since the conference finals in 1995.
“It should be fun,” Babcock said.
Before Detroit did it, Colorado was the most recent NHL team to reach the conference finals after hoisting the Cup. The Avalanche lost to Detroit 7-0 in the deciding game in 2002.
Five of the games in this series were decided by a goal, including Game 2 in triple overtime.
“It was the best series I’ve been in,” Babcock said.
Anaheim’s Jonas Hiller had a lot to do with the competitiveness, making 36 saves in the finale.
“What made this series so hard and what people don’t understand, the people that have won know what it takes to win,” Babcock said. “That’s what made them so hard to get rid of.”
Chris Osgood stopped 24 shots for the Red Wings, who couldn’t protect a two-goal lead in the second period.
“It was a tough series, probably one of the toughest we’ve played in a long time,” Osgood said.
Detroit’s Jiri Hudler, Darren Helm and Mikael Samuelsson scored.
Cleary set up a matchup with his former team by scoring the winning goal, stuffing the puck past Hiller after Henrik Zetterberg flipped it into the crease.
“Z was in the corner and made a good play, put it on net,” Cleary said. “I stayed with it and got it under Hiller.”
