It was crazy to think the Detroit Red Wings were going to blow a 3-0 series lead.
No matter how possible it seemed for the last few days, that kind of collapse almost never happens in hockey and besides, the Red Wings are just too talented and too experienced to let it happen. They allowed the Dallas Stars to get back into the Western Conference Finals by getting too far ahead of themselves, showing up two periods too lat to close things out in Game 4 and then forgetting that taking your best shots are meaningless if you can't hit the net the next time out.
But when things were on the verge of getting out of hand -- like Dallas potentially forcing a Game 7 -- Detroit simply said it was time to end the madness.
The Red Wings knew they had plenty of chances to win both of the games they lost and probably should have or at least would have had Stars goalie Marty Turco not been as sharp as he was. But Turco didn't have any magic left tonight, and with Detroit exploding out of the gate, the outcome of Game 6 was never in doubt.
Truth is Detroit had it wrapped up before the opening period had ended, scoring three times in the first 17 minutes to suck the life out of the Dallas arena and out of any delusion the Stars may have had about making history.
Dallas left nothing to chance in a 4-1 win that was not nearly as close as the final score might suggest. They used their heads (actually Kris Draper's face) to score on goal, they used their heart (Dallas Drake crashing the net) to get another, and they used their skill to get a power play goal from Pavel Datsyuk and and a short-handed one from Henrik Zetterberg.
Zetterberg's goal was really the backbreaker coming just three minutes into the second period when he broke in alone on Turco after intercepting a Brenden Morrow pass at his own blue line. Dallas tried to make it interesting by getting an early third period goal, but much like the back-to-back wins that kept them alive, it was nothing more than a tease.
And the Red Wings put an end to it.
