Red Wings return to Stanley Cup final

DALLAS — Dominant in the regular season, superb again in the postseason, the Detroit Red Wings are headed back to the Stanley Cup finals.

With gusto, too.

Just when the Red Wings lost consecutive games and were starting to look vulnerable, they bounced back strong in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, getting first-period goals from Kris Draper, Pavel Datsyuk and Dallas Drake on their way to knocking out the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Monday night.

Now Detroit goes from worrying about becoming the third team to blow a 3-0 series lead to trying to win its fourth championship in 11 seasons. The Red Wings will face the Pittsburgh Penguins, with the first two games at Joe Louis Arena. The league did not immediately say when the series would begin.

Detroit will be the home team because it had more regular-season points — most in the league, in fact. The Red Wings are the first recipient of the Presidents' Trophy to play for the Cup since they did so in 2002. That also was the last time they were in the finals.

As good as Detroit was the first 82 games, the Red Wings were even better for much of the last six weeks. They went nearly a month between losses, winning a franchise-record nine straight playoff games. It was the longest run by any team in 15 years and it put them a win away from eliminating the fifth-seeded Stars.

Dallas won Games 4 and 5 by limiting Detroit to a goal each game.

— AP