Ice hockey: Detroit set for sweep

KRIS DRAPER'S goal for the Detroit Red Wings after 15min 24sec of overtime completed an inspired comeback as they beat the Washington Capitals 5-4 in the best-of-seven NHL championship series.

Draper's goal meant the defending Stanley Cup champions took a two-match lead. Victories in their five previous overtime contests had helped Washington reach the finals for the first time in their franchise history, but the streak finally ended.

Washington twice blew two-goal leads in the third period, wilting under pressure from the Red Wings, who attacked in waves after falling behind 3-1 in the second period. The Red Wings put an incredible 60 shots on goal in the game, outshooting the Capitals 32-10 after the second period and 60-33 overall.

The Detroit goalminder, Olaf Kolzig, finished with 55 saves but it was not enough to save his team from a painful defeat. "We put a lot of rubber on him tonight and he just kept making save after save, giving his team a chance to win," Draper said of Kolzig.

Game three takes place in Washington on Saturday and Detroit are still in a position to record their second consecutive Stanley Cup clean sweep.

The Red Wings captain, Steve Yzerman, had a superb game, scoring two goals, and he also put a thunderous check on the much larger Mark Tinordi on the back boards, forcing the Washington defenceman to give the puck away. Doug Brown picked it up and shot high over Kolzig's left arm to tie the game at 4-4 with just 4min 14sec left in regulation time.

Yzerman very nearly had a hat-trick but Kolzig robbed him of the potential winner in the closing minutes of the third period. He also did a tremendous job of keeping Sergei Fedorov from putting the puck in the net more than once.

After Yzerman scored the only goal of the first period, Washington erupted for three second-period strikes, with Peter Bondra, Chris Simon and Adam Oates each beating Chris Osgood for a 3-1 lead. With their sound defence, the Capitals appeared to be heading for a series-levelling win.

Just 28 seconds after Yzerman struck, on the very same Capitals powerplay, Joe Juneau netted his seventh goal of the play-offs to restore Washington's two-goal lead. But any idea of tight defensive play went out the window in the fast and furious end-to-end action over the rest of the game.

Just 63 seconds later, Detroit's Igor Larionov sent a behind-the-back pass to Lapointe, who beat Kolzig with a wrist shot for his eighth of the play-offs to make it a one-goal game with just over 11 minutes remaining in regulation.