Wings Ready For Next Victim

May 3, 1998 / 8:10 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Too much Brendan Shanahan. Too much Sergei Fedorov. Too much Steve Yzerman. Too much speed and experience in must-win playoff games. And one lucky break.

The Detroit Red Wings, who wanted to close out their first-round series in Phoenix, got the job done Sunday. The 5-2 victory seemed inevitable after Fedorov scored Detroit's fourth goal with a fluke shot that bounced off the boards and the skate of the Coyotes' goaltender.

"It was as big a shock to me as it was to Jimmy Waite," Shanahan said. "We all thought the puck had traveled behind the net. I was looking for it on the other side."

Shanahan had two goals and Yzerman had one and two assists as the Red Wings beat a first-round opponent in six games for the third straight year.

The defending Stanley Cup champions advanced to the second round for the seventh straight postseason and will play either St. Louis or Colorado. The matchup will be determined by the outcome of the Edmonton-Avalanche game Monday night.

Detroit also got a goal from Brent Gilchrist, and Chris Osgood made 22 saves to win his third consecutive game and send the Coyotes to their seventh first-round exit in as many playoffs for the franchise since 1987.

Yzerman and Gilchrist made it 13 Detroit goal-scorers in the series, a statistic that speaks volumes about the team's depth. Phoenix had seven players who scored goals.

"We were that way all through the regular season," center Kris Draper said. "We didn't have a 30-goal scorer, but we had a lot of guys with 10 goals or more. You know Sergei and Steve are going to get their goals, but we've always had someone there to step up when it was needed."

Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk scored for Phoenix, each time staking the Coyotes to a one-goal lead.

But the game was decided when the Red Wings outshot the Coyotes 18-4 in the second period and scored three times to take a 4-2 lead into the third.

Phoenix overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period to win Game 3, but it was out of question this time with Waite in goal instead of Nikolai Khabibulin, who has a groin pull. The backup faced 37 shots and stopped 32 under constant pressure.

"There's no excuses in this lockerroom," Tkachuk said. "We're absolutely disappointed. It's a frustrating situation."

The first four Detroit goals came on power plays, an oddity considering that the Red Wings were 3-for-33 with a man advantage in the series and went 18 straight power plays without a goal until Yzerman tied it 1-1 with 4:32 left in the first period.

Detroit scored on three of its next seven power plays, going 4-for-9 in all.

Roenick scored his fifth goal on the first Phoenix power play, backhanding a crossing pass from Rick Tocchet past Osgood's stick side 7:03 into he game. But Detroit killed the next four Phoenix power plays, allowing the Coyotes just 12 shots in the final two periods.

The Red Wings tied it with 4:32 left in the first period on a wrist shot by Yzerman, who flipped the puck over Waite's left shoulder when Waite crouched too soon.

Yzerman, the team's leading scorer in the regular season, broke two droughts with his first playoff goal while ending the string of power-play failures.

"I'd been trying to pass it across the crease in a number of similar situations," Yzerman said. "But their defensemen were always in good position. So I said to myself, `I think one of these times, I'll hold onto the puck and step towards the net and shoot it.' That's what I did."

Shanahan, who missed the first two games because of an injury, tied it 2-2 just 3:45 into the second period when he one-timed a shot from the top of the circle, and made it 3-2 with another one-timer from the slot with 5:50 left in the period, his third goal.

Fedorov got No. 6 when he tried to dump the puck. It found a gap in the boards, kicked out, glanced off the back of Waite's skate and slid into the net before Waite turned around.

Yzerman fed Gilchrist for a breakaway goal midway through the third period.

"I think we competed," the Coyotes' Rick Tocchet said. "We let them off the hook in Game 4, and that hurt us. You only get so many chances to win a cup in your career. There's a lot of disappointed guys in this room."