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Franzen's goal helps Red Wings oust Flames

Apr 23, 2007 - 6:55 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Johan Franzen absorbed the Calgary Flames' worst shots. Twenty-four hours later, he eliminated them with one of his best shots.

Franzen scored the game-winning goal at 4:23 of the second overtime to help the Detroit Red Wings eliminate the Calgary Flames with a pulsating 2-1 victory in Game Six of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

In winning for the first time at Pengrowth Saddledome in the series, the Red Wings advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2004. Detroit's next opponent will be either San Jose or Dallas if it beats Vancouver on Monday.

One night after dismantling the Flames, 5-1, in Game Five in Detroit, the Red Wings peppered Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff with 55 shots, finally breaking through on a brilliant effort from Franzen.

"He (Kiprusoff) was great for them," Franzen said. "He's going to get tired too. We managed more than 50 shots, so he's going to get tired too. Sooner or later it's going to go in."

Taking a pass from Nicklas Lidstrom, Franzen sped up the right side of the ice, cut across the middle and ripped a 45-foot shot over the right shoulder of Kiprusoff.

"I got the puck in the neutral zone from Nick," Franzen said. "I took it over the blue line, they had three guys back. I took a shot and Kiprusoff couldn't see it.

"It was kind of quiet. Was it really in? I had to look for a couple of seconds before I realized it and it felt pretty good after that."

One night earlier, Flames backup goaltender Jamie McLennan drew a match penalty for a two-handed slash across Franzen's chest, which came moments after he had drawn a slashing penalty for repeatedly whacking Franzen in front of the net.

On Sunday, McLennan was suspended five games for the incident, while the Flames were fined $100,000 and coach Jim Playfair drew a $25,000 punishment.

"It was physical. At the start of the series, they were making it clear they were going to finish their checks and try to intimidate us," Detroit's Kris Draper said. "But we were using more players than them and we thought our depth would be a factor for us as the series went on."

Franzen then meted out his own brand of punishment by knocking the Flames out of the postseason with his second goal of the series.

"He's been working hard for us all series, banging out there and playing tough," Lidstrom said of Franzen. "It's good to see him get rewarded like that."

Robert Lang also scored a goal for Detroit, which put unrelenting pressure on Kiprosoff and won in Calgary for the first time April 3, 2006.

"It was a great play (by Franzen)," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "Mule (Franzen) cut in behind and anytime the game goes for as long as it did, it's hard for the D men to hold their ground when a guy's driving the middle. And Mule has a rocket anyway and put it up over."

Although Detroit dominated, as evidenced by its staggering 55-21 advantage in shots on goal, it needed to survive a miraculous miss by Calgary's David Moss in the first overtime to avoid a seventh game.

With the Flames on the power play, Moss had an open net with Red Wings goaltender Dominik Hasek laying prone and helpless in front of him, but he fired it over the crossbar from just in front of the crease.

"I have to bury it," Moss said. "Even though the puck was rolling and I didn't really get a piece of it, it doesn't matter. I feel terrible.

"When you get a chance like that, boom it's got to go in. ... If I had that shot 10 more times I would probably score on 10. I don't know what to say."

Detroit had an enormous opportunity when Craig Conroy was whistled for a four-minute high-sticking penalty with 13:16 left in the first overtime.

Mikael Samuelsson almost ended it for the Wings, blasting a slap shot that Kiprusoff knocked down and then watched trickle behind him until defenseman Roman Hamrlik swept it out of the crease just inches from the goal line.

"I was pretty nervous during those four minutes," Conroy said. "I thought if the guys could kill this off we might have a chance. Moss had the best chance on the power play, but we didn't get enough pressure on Hasek. Not the pressure we would have liked."

Flames captain Jarome Iginla opened the scoring at 3:09 of the middle session. From behind the net, Daymond Langkow centered a pass out front and Iginla beat Hasek, seemingly a good omen for Calgary since the team scoring first won the first five games.

"We felt from the start of the year we had the team to play anyone," Calgary's Alex Tanguay said. "But we got outplayed. That's the way it was."