Red Wings three stars from Conference Final

May 30, 4:03 PMDetroit Red Wings ExaminerMike Mouat

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Dan Cleary

There were plenty of great performers on the Red Wings against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Conference Final, making it difficult to narrow the list down to the top three, and several players have earned honorable mention.

First Star, Dan Cleary

Cleary led the Red Wings with five goals in the five game series and was +6. Heading into Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins Cleary has established himself as a Conn Smythe candidate with eight goals and 14 points in 16 games and leads all players with a +16 rating.

Second Star, Valtteri Filppula

Filppula was the set up man for Cleary and he led all Red Wings in scoring against the Blackhawks with seven points, including six assists, and he was +4 in the five games. He currently leads the Red Wings in assists in the playoffs with 13.

Third Star, Brian Rafalski

With captain Nick Lidstrom on the sidelines with an injury for the final two games of the series Rafalski picked up his game offensively and had a goal and four assists for five points to lead the defensemen in scoring. He was also +3 in the five games. Equally important due to Lidstrom absence, Rafalski did not take a penalty during the series while logging a lot of minutes.

Honorable Mentions

As indicated above there were several players deserving in this series. Marian Hossa was as determined as he was dangerous in the series against the Blackhawks scoring two goals and three assists for five points, showing signs that he is on the verge of a hot streak. Johan Franzen continues to be a consistent scorer with two more goals and two assists for four points. He leads all Red Wings with 10 goals and 19 points. Chris Osgood was spectacular at key times against Chicago and recorded a 0.932 save percentage in the series to raise his save percentage to 0.925 overall in the playoffs, and his goals against average remained 2.05. Brett Lebda had four assists in the series including setting up both goals in Detroit's 2-1 win in game five to eliminate the Blackhawks. Brad Stuart was key in shutting down the Chicago dynamic duo of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, and his contributions are not measured in points scored but in points not scored by the opposition. He played more minutes than any Red Wing in the series and was +4 against Chicago's top scorers.