The top-seeded Detroit Red Wings will try to take an important 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals tonight, when they visit the floundering Dallas Stars for Game 3 at American Airlines Center. Detroit has taken a two game lead in this series after posting wins in Games 1 and 2 on home ice. The Red Wings recorded a 4-1 decision in game 1 last Thursday and followed with a 2-1 win on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings have won eight straight games since head coach Mike Babcock made the big decision to switch goaltenders and replaced Dominik Hasek with Chris Osgood. Osgood is 8-0 with a 1.40 goals against average and .939 save percentage in this postseason. The matchup one Wednesday should be an intense one, with the altercation between Ribeiro and Osgood in game 2 causing a lot of tension.

The Dallas Stars made it back to the Western Conference finals and it only took the eighth longest game in NHL history to do it. The deciding game lasted 5 hours, 14 minutes — ending the third-longest in Stars history. Brenden Morrow scored a power-play goal 9:03 into the fourth overtime by deflecting a pass from Stephane Robidas as the Stars eliminated the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in a game that ended early Monday morning. It was the longest game in San Jose’s franchise history.
The Stars are going to the conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they returned to the Stanley Cup finals the year after winning the franchise’s only championship. They play Game 1 on Thursday night against the Detroit Red Wings, who finished their second-round sweep of Colorado on Thursday night.

The Dallas Stars will open the NHL Western Conference final in Detroit against the Red Wings this Thursday.

A power play goal at 9:03 of the fourth overtime period brought the Dallas Stars a well fought 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal. The Red Wings, who posted an NHL-best 115 points in the regular season, swept the Colorado Avalanche in four games in the other conference semifinal.

In the Eastern final, the Flyers will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins, which begins on Friday in Pittsburgh. Marian Hossa scored the winning goal at 7:10 of overtime Sunday as the Penguins as they squeaked out a 3-2 win, eliminating the New York Rangers in five games in the semifinal.
Pittsburgh led 2-0 after two periods but the Rangers fought back as Lauri Korpikoski and Nigel Dawes scored 82 seconds apart early in the third, forcing an overtime period.