Red Wings edge Chicago in OT to win series

DETROIT (AP) " The banged-up Detroit Red Wings were hoping for some rest before taking their shot at repeating as Stanley Cup champions.

No such luck " thanks to the NHL and NBC.

"Normally when you win in five games, you get this little break normally, but I think we're trying to jam," coach Mike Babcock said after Detroit eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday night. "I don't know if we're making up for lost time in the previous three series by jamming this all in 10 days or whatever we're doing. They don't ask me."

Babcock gave his players the day off on Thursday.

The NHL went against its previous plan, pushing up the start of the Cup finals to avoid a long layoff, and announced Detroit will host Pittsburgh on Saturday night in Game 1.

Last week, the NHL said the finals would begin June 5 if both conference finals were not decided by Tuesday.

The new plan was put in place because NBC and the league didn't want to stunt the excitement about a matchup that has the potential to draw nontraditional viewers.

Detroit and Pittsburgh, though, will be forced to play on back-to-back days for the first time in the Cup finals since Montreal and Los Angeles in 1993.

"You don't want my opinion on that," Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios said.

After playing on consecutive days, both teams will have a quick turnaround to play Game 3 on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh and will get a day off before Game 4 Thursday night.

If Detroit didn't have so much depth, perhaps it would've had time to rest.

Darren Helm and Dan Cleary are far from marquee players for the Red Wings, but they became valuable players with stars Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk out with injuries.

Helm scored 3:58 into overtime and Cleary had a goal in the third period.

"We lose guys and we keep getting the job done," defenseman Brett Lebda said.

Detroit won 4-1 in a series that needed overtime in three of the last four games.

"We blew them out one game, but by no means was it easy," said goalie Chris Osgood, who made 30 saves.

The Red Wings are matching up with Pittsburgh in what is the NHL's first Stanley Cup rematch since the Edmonton Oilers beat the New York Islanders in 1984 after losing to them the previous year.

Detroit, the first defending champion to get back to the finals since New Jersey in 2001, is trying to become the first team to repeat since they accomplished the feat in 1997 and '98.

One of the intriguing stories will be Detroit's Marian Hossa playing against the team he left behind as a free agent. Hossa turned down a long-term, lucrative deal from the Penguins last summer for a one-year contract because he believed the Red Wings had a better shot to win it all again.

"This doesn't happen often," Hossa said. "I try to make the best of the situation for myself and try to help the team win a Cup."

Despite helping Chicago reach the playoffs for the first time since 2002 and the conference finals for the first time since 1995, Jonathan Toews took the season-ending loss hard.

"It's a pretty hard kick to the ribs," Toews said. "It stinks quite a bit, but maybe it's the motivation and experience we needed."