Wings Blog

Game 3 Post-Mortem

OK, let's see now ...

Pavel Datsyuk gets his first career hat trick.

Henrik Zetterberg extends his point streak to eight games and now leads the NHL in playoff scoring.

Jiri Hudler gets a breakaway goal and has 12 points in 13 games.

Niklas Kronwall leads all NHL defenseman in scoring in the postseason.

Oh, and Chris Osgood stays perfect (9-0) and ties Terry Sawchuk for career playoff wins (47) in Detroit.

Yeah, I'd say things are looking pretty good for the Wings right about now. After Monday night's 5-2 win let the rest of the air out of the balloon in this series, it's all over but the waiting. The Stanley Cup Finals await the Wings and their fans for the first time since 2002.

I can't imagine we'll see another 8-2 laugher in the Game 4 on Wednesday, but it looks to me like the Stars ran out of gas a week ago and now they're just parked by the side of the road hitchiking. Brenden Morrow's a gamer, but he's hurt now. Modano needed smelling salts tonight. Neither Ribiero nor Richards can find a matchup they can win in this series. And Marty Turco appears to have zero confidence -- in his team or in his ability to make a big save.

Before anyone asks, though, we've got no idea yet when the Cup Finals would actually start. We'll try to find out more tomorrow on that subject but even if both series end in sweeps, I think we'll see a pretty decent layoff.