Darren Helm usually plays in the shadow of his more renowned teammates like Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.
But the 22-year-old Canadian made his presence felt on Wednesday, swatting home a loose puck in the crease in overtime to lift the defending champions the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 win and a return berth in the Stanley Cup finals.
“I just saw it sitting there [in the crease], got a good whack on it and just made sure it went in,” Helm said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Helm has elevated his play in these playoffs after spending the regular season with the Red Wings development team in Grand Rapids.
He has yet to score a regular season NHL goal but now has four playoff goals, including the two he scored in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. And now he has a semi-final series clinching goal to go with it.
“Helm was tremendous,” Zetterberg said. “He scored the winner in overtime. We have a lot of players who come in and out of the lineup and play well for us.”
JOURNEYMAN
Forward Dan Cleary, an NHL journeyman until he found a home with the Red Wings, also scored for Detroit who won the best-of-seven series four games to one.
Detroit will once again face Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins in the repeat of the 2007-2008 National Hockey League championship series.
The Red Wings beat the Penguins in six games last year.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane scored on a backhand off a solo rush to tie it at 12:53 of the third after Cleary had given Detroit the lead earlier in the period.
The Red Wings Chris Osgood won the battle of the goaltenders Wednesday but Chicago’s Cristobal Huet was outstanding making 45 saves.
Huet made the save of the game with 21 seconds left in the third, getting an outstretched right leg pad on a shot from in close by Johan Franzen.
France’s Huet rebounded from a poor outing in game four to perform superbly in game five.
“He played unbelievable,” Helm said of Huet.
Both teams were battling injuries, but the Blackhawks were without their top scorer Martin Havlat and No. 1 goalie Nikolai Khabibulin.
“I think we should all be proud of the year we had,” Quenneville said.
MATURED
“It was a great group to work with. These kids have been great all year long. They matured. They developed,” he said. “But it was a really good working experience. We got to find out what playoff hockey is all about.”
The first game of the Stanley Cup finals is tomorrow in Detroit.
“We are going to get some rest, get some guys back from injury because we need to get healthy for the next series,” Osgood said.
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