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 Friday, December 13, 2002
Strategies and matchups may change now
By John Davidson
Special to ABC Sports Online
It's "series on" now.
Chris Drury's goal in overtime on Monday night makes it a series. If the Detroit Red Wings won two in a row, they would have been awfully hard to beat four out of five games.
This series being deadlocked at one game apiece tells you how good these two teams are. The biggest difference in the two games, to me, was watching Peter Forsberg have an average Game 1, and then be, at times, dominant in Game 2. It's also amazing how Detroit's third- and fourth-line guys are scoring, but the big boys haven't. That's something that is very intriguing.
Steve Yzerman is really laboring. This is a man that has been unable to practice due to his bad knee. And when you don't practice, you don't retain strength in your legs. I know he's hoping to be able to get through seven more wins.
One has to watch the mathups now, as the series heads to Denver. We saw Chris Chelios and Jiri Fischer play a ton against Forsberg. We saw Nicklas Lidstrom and Fredrik Olausson play a ton against Joe Sakic. We'll see if Colorado makes a change in that area, since they now have home-ice advantage and the last line change for face-offs.
You may now get the "Drury factor," with the sensational goal he got in the 4-3 victory. That may free him up mentally, to get more offense the rest of the way. I don't think you're going to see Patrick Roy change in goal. He'll continue to be aggressive and handle the puck, even though it's cost him in the series thus far.
This series is just starting to settle in. It's fast and very intense. It's interesting just to watch a series like this when you sense so much respect for each other due to the actual ability on the ice. They are being careful, yet playing with a great deal of passion. It has been remarkable just to watch the first two games.
Shifting to the Eastern Conference Finals, we have another series tied at 1-1.
In getting the first game, Toronto had the luxury of going for a two-game sweep on the road, and almost did. Probably the biggest thing to come out of the win in Game two is the Leafs getting Mats Sundin a game under his belt. It was a brilliant move to get him on the ice, especially being up a game. For them to win, they need Sundin. Getting his timing back and into the speed of the game and competitiveness of the series was something he needed. I think you'll see him play more in Game 3.
Toronto's priority right now will be to shut down the BBC line of Bates Battaglia, Rod Brind'Amour and Erik Cole. It looked like in Game 2 that they had Alyn McCauley out there against them. Will they stay with that or go head-to-head having Sundin out there against the Brind'Amour line? Or will they go Sundin against Ron Francis?
These little games within the games change when you have home-ice advantage. You have that ability to make the changes you want. Regardless of the changes that might be made, I think we'll see Toronto play the intense game as usual. With Sundin back, the other players just can't get caught thinking "Oh, Mats is back" and think everything will get done for them. This is a team that's received efforts from a lot of other players throughout the year.
If by chance Toronto develops a game plan centered around shutting down the BBC line, Carolina has to get offense from guys like Jeff O'Neill, Sami Kapanen, Josef Vasicek, Martin Gelinas and Francis.
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 Chris Drury takes the feed from Steven Reinprecht and splits the defense tallying the OT game-winner.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Nicklas Lidstrom's slapper caroms off the boards and Patrick Roy kicks the puck into his own net.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Darren McCarty erupts in the third period for a natural hat trick.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Niclas Wallin scores the OT game-winner off the give-and-go from Rod Brind'Amour.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Alyn McCauley nets the one-timer from Gary Roberts with 7.2 seconds left in regulation.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Alexander Mogilny puts the rebound past Arturs Irbe.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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