A source has told The Associated Press that Detroit Red Wings goaltender Dominik Hasek is expected to announce his retirement from the NHL. The Red Wings have scheduled a press conference for Monday for today. Over the course of 16 NHL seasons, Hasek posted a record of 389-223-82, with 81 shutouts and a career goals against average of 2.20. At 43, he is the NHL’s oldest active goalie.

Hasek has won six Vezina Trophies as the NHL’s top goaltender, two Hart Trophies as the league’s most valuable player and an Olympic gold medal with the Czech Republic at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

Hasek leaves the game after a rough and cut short run to his second Stanley Cup this season. He lost his starting role in Game 4 of Detroit’s first-round series against the Nashville Predators to Chris Osgood, who remained the starter during the team’s run for the Stanley Cup.

The Stanley Cup is back in Hockeytown once again. For the fourth time in eleven seasons, the Red Wings are the Stanley Cup champs. They used experience to knock out the younger, less experienced Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory in Game 6 of the Final. Following in the iceskates of Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman,  captain Nicklas Lidstrom strongly led the Red Wings to the title. Detroit’s 11th NHL championship team is the first in league history to be captained by a European.

Just like in Game 5, things got a little too close for comfort for Detroit, who allowed Marian Hossa’s power-play goal with 1:27 remaining that got the Penguins to 3-2. Pittsburgh had already pulled Game 5 star Marc-Andre Fleury to create a 6-on-4 skating edge, but they couldn’t pull off another goal, although they came close. In the final seconds, Sidney Crosby put a backhander on goal that Hossa just missed with a tip at the right post.

The Red Wings won their fourth straight series on the road in these playoffs. Detroit is third in NHL titles, trailing fellow Original Six clubs Montreal and Toronto.

The Detroit Red Wings were trying to close out the series at home with a 3-1 series lead, wanting to make an easy win of their fourth Stanley Cup in 11 years. It became clear early in this game that the Pens were not going down without a fight. Battling nerves and falling behind 2-0 in the first period, Detroit had a jerky start. The Pittsburgh Penguins are trying to become the first team since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup finals. Toronto did it against Detroit. The last triple-overtime game in the finals was in 2002, when Detroit won Game 3 with a goal by Igor Larionov.

The game lasted nearly four and a half hours. The Penguins took control while the Red Wings in spurts, only to have the Red Wings rush back with a barrage of offense. In the fifth-longest game in Stanley Cup final history, Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stole it for his team, making 55 saves in a career performance.

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 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.

The Detroit Red Wings were hoping to stay with Dominik Hasek when the playoffs began after rotating the goalie with Chris Osgood in the regular season. Hasek was so shaky in a series-evening loss that coach Mike Babcock was forced to make a move.

“This is Plan B,” Babcock said yesterday. “But Plan B is Chris Osgood and I think he won 29 games and had the best goals-against average in the NHL.”

Hasek was benched after giving up three goals on 14 shots in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss at Nashville. Hasek is the oldest active goalie in the NHL at 43, and the second oldest active player in the league after Red Wings teammate Chris Chelios, who is 46.