Red Wings Advance To Conference Finals

Archived from 2001-02 season.

2002 Playoffs

Brendan Shanahan had two goals and two assists and Dominik Hasek made 16 saves for his third shutout of the playoffs as the Detroit Red Wings eliminated the St. Louis Blues with a 4-0 victory in Game 5 of their second round series.

"We had our best game of the playoffs," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "We wanted to win badly to not have to go back and wear out a lot of guys. And maybe not even win."

The Red Wings reached the Western Conference for the first time since 1998, when they won their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

Detroit eliminated St. Louis from the playoffs for the fourth time since 1996.

"For a team that was desperate like we were, I didn't think we came out the way we wanted," St. Louis' Keith Tkachuk said. "It almost seemed like they were down three games to one."

Sharks Rally To Win
The San Jose Sharks scored three unanswered third-period goals to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 and take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

"We didn't abandon our game plan in the third period," said Teemu Selanne, who scored the game-winner. "We have been awesome in the third period the whole season. We knew we had a chance."

Marco Sturm, Niklas Sundstrom, Mike Ricci and Owen Nolan also scored for the Sharks, who have a chance to finish the series in Game 6 Monday night in San Jose.

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