A clear win for Red Wings in Game 7 thriller

Detroit -- The puck sat there for a second, two seconds, three heartbeats? It sat in front of the Anaheim net as the crowd shrieked and sticks poked, and at the end of this terrifically tight series, the Red Wings did what they had to do, what they've done before -- they took the last desperate jab.

It came from Dan Cleary, who knocked the puck in on his second swat with three minutes left, and just like that, the Wings escaped and survived, beating the Ducks 4-3 Thursday night to win Game 7 and advance to the Western Conference Finals against Chicago.

Exult. Then exhale.

And know this: After weathering the Ducks in the clutch, the defending champs are Cup favorites again. Whatever happens from here, the Wings won't face an opponent as feisty and tough as Anaheim. They won't find much more tension than they did on this night, when they squandered a pair of two-goal leads and Joe Louis Arena went from bedlam to quiet after the Ducks' Bobby Ryan tied it in the third period. And then it was back to bedlam.

"We really had to put the dagger in that team, and that was the dagger," said Cleary, the bearded, burly type who rises at playoff time. "We just kept coming. We didn't get frustrated, we didn't lose focus."

The Ducks, who won the Stanley Cup in 2007, were the one team that could match the Wings' experience. The young Blackhawks will have more spirit than seasoning, so that will be a totally different series, which isn't a bad thing for the Wings. It should be a great thing actually, old rivals clashing in the conference finals for the first time since 1995.

Poise and persistence

But first, the exhale, because this was a brutal grind. For every reason the Wings had to get riled -- the Ducks' fisticuffs at the end of Game 6, for instance -- they had a better reason to stay composed. The winning goal was a prime example of poise and persistence, as Henrik Zetterberg grabbed the puck behind the net and back-handed a pass to Cleary, who delivered the dagger past staggered goalie Jonas Hiller.

It was tense to the final horn, and make no mistake about one underrated star -- Wings goalie Chris Osgood. The Wings outshot the Ducks again, 40-27, but Osgood was tested constantly by Anaheim's big top line. The Wings were tested as they hadn't been since beating Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Finals last spring, and once again their depth across all four lines was the difference.

"I thought that was the best series I've been in since I've coached in the league," Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "For sure, it was the hardest series, the most even, the least room. The way they played against us was belligerent, and it makes it hard on you."

Dealing with danger

The Wings handled the belligerence, just barely. Zetterberg and Pavel Datysuk didn't score, but they contributed in every other way. Datsyuk set up the third goal with a nifty pass to Mikael Samuelsson, seconds before getting clobbered by the Ducks' Todd Marchant.

Zetterberg was tremendous blocking shots, and afterward, he wore a smile that had to be half-satisfaction, half-relief.

"It was tough mentally, it was tough physically," he said. "But it was all worth it."

On the road to the Stanley Cup, a team inevitably runs into real danger, and this was as real as it gets. It was reflected in the bloody marks on the face of Brian Rafalski, who got the worst of a nasty scrum at the end of Game 6. It was reflected in the tension all game; at times, it looked like both teams were just hanging on.

A Game 7 always is about emotion -- containing it and unleashing it. After back-to-back Detroit penalties in the first period, Anaheim had a two-man advantage, and the Wings had their first whiff of danger. Led by the skating and swiping of Datysuk, the Wings killed the Ducks' power play, and just like that, the game shifted.

Role players step up

You take your chances in a Game 7, when one bouncing puck can change everything. Persistence pays, and the Wings' role players had no trouble stepping in with huge goals -- from Cleary, Samuelsson, speedy young Darren Helm and Jiri Hudler.

The Wings kept pressing, and when Helm scored on a breakaway in the second period, they led 2-0. But in this series, the exhales didn't last long. The Ducks collected two rebound goals in front of Osgood, first by Teemu Selanne, then by relentless nemesis Corey Perry. And then Ryan tied it, before Cleary won it with the biggest goal of his life, leaving Osgood to close it out.

"It took everything we had to beat that team, and I'm proud of the way we played," Osgood said. "I think our experience took over the last 10 minutes. Probably a lot of people thought we'd get bumped around physically, hammered around the ice. I thought we stood up to that."

The Wings survived, and it was survival of the feistiest, richly earned. More good stuff lies ahead against the dynamic Blackhawks, but for the Wings, the toughest stuff was just eliminated, sent away with one perfect final jab.

bob.wojnowski@detnews.com">bob.wojnowski@detnews.com