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 1997 Red Wing Playoffs

 Round Two

 Red Wings 1998 Playoffs Revisited

The Detroit Red Wings opened up the 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Joe Louis Arena in losing effort against the St. Louis Blues by a score of 2-0. Both St. Louis goals where scored in the first peroid. Geoff Courtnall scored the first goal at 12:54 and Pierre Turgeon scored the second at 19:22. Mike Vernon played well in the nets especially in the second period when he stopped 15 shots, some of which came on a 5-on-3 Blues powerplay. Although the Wings failed to score they did manage to give Grant Fuhr a workout as he made 30 stops to record the shutout.

Wings bend, but don't break, then solve Grant Fuhr in the third scoring two goals to beat the Blues 2-1. Kris Draper scored Detroit's first goal short-handed at 4:05 of the third period to even the score at 1-1. Larry Murphy followed with a goal 7:09 which turned out to be the game winner. Marc Bergevin scored the lone St. Louis goal at 4:24 of the first on a pass from Pierre Turgeon.

The Detroit Red Wings scoring on 2 of 9 powerplay oportunities edge the St. Louis Blues. Kris Draper opened the scoring at 2:40 of the first period. The Blues got the goal back at 17:09 of the first when Brett Hull beat Mike Vernon with a hard slap shot. In the second period Brendan Shanahan scored Detroits first powerplay goal giving the Wings a 2-1 lead. Joe Murphy evened the score at 2-2. Later, Steve Yzerman's power-play goal in the second was the last tally and the Wings disipline pays off with a 3 -2 victory.

Grant Fuhr stopped 28 shotss and got his 80th career playoff victory which tied him for third along with Montreal goalie Ken Dryden on the all-time list. Fuhr frustrated the Wing shooters all night stopping all comers to even the series at 2 games a peice. Geoff Courtnall scored twice, Pavol Demitra and Chris Pronger also scored for the St. Louis Blues. Wings. Game was relatively penalty free until late in the third when fistacuffs brokeout and several players ended up with fighting majors and game-misconduct penalties.

Wings generate 5 goals (their total output for the first 4 games) and beat the Blues 5 - 2. Steve Yzerman let a shot go just as he crossed the blue line and it went between Grant Fuhr's pads for the first goal of the game and Detroit never looked back. Al MacInnis tied the score at 1-1 at 11:02 of the first. It stayed that way until 5:02 of the second when Slava Kozlov scored from between the circles for a powerplay goal. Darren McCarty (right) scored at 7:52 when he pickup up Dale Murphy's rebound and tucked it by a sprawing Grant Fuhr. Campbell closed the gap to 3-2 at 12:14 of the second, but that was all the scoring the Blues could manage as the Wings kept constant pressure on Grant Fuhr. Brendan Shanahan (left)and Dale Murphy closed out the scoring for Detroit.