Even Temperament Gets Detroit Ahead

Sergei Fedorov’s English is so fluent, it was surprising to see the Russian-born center look puzzled when he was asked how the Red Wings have overcome so much adversity.

He wasn’t familiar with the word because adversity is no longer part of the Red Wings’ vocabulary. Losing in the conference finals in 1996, winning the Stanley Cup last year and losing defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov to injuries he suffered in a car accident last June taught them to deal with misfortune, not wallow in it. That lesson paid off Tuesday in a double-overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues that might be the pivotal point of their Western Conference semifinal series.

The Red Wings shrugged off a tying goal from the red line by St. Louis defenseman Al MacInnis with 54.4 seconds left in the third period and held on to take a 3-2 victory and a 2-1 series lead when Brendan Shanahan rifled a wrist shot past Grant Fuhr 11:12 into the second sudden-death period. They remained calm despite a crowd that was invigorated by the return from injuries of MacInnis and Chris Pronger, and their spirits didn’t flag when MacInnis’ blast tricked goalie Chris Osgood. Instead, they assured each other nothing had been lost--not the game and certainly not the series.

“We’ve all been through that and we’ve seen players grow a lot,” Fedorov said Wednesday. “We learned how to react to each other’s intensity or movements. That’s why I felt pretty comfortable with all the players in this locker room, because I knew what to expect. If you feel comfortable in such intense situations in the game as double overtime, obviously you have a little edge. That can help us succeed. . . .

“We wanted to play so hard for Ozzie [Osgood]. I don’t want to do anything else in my life, just win for Ozzie and the team. I didn’t feel any sense of shock in our team. There was no sense we can let this game get away. We said, ‘We have nowhere to go. We may as well stay here all night and get this business done.’ ”

They did it well. “I thought [MacInnis’ goal] would have been a big lift for us,” Blues’ Coach Joel Quenneville said, “but it shows the leadership and depth of that team’s experience. It’s a sign of what that team’s all about.”

The Blues plan no strategy changes for Game 4, today at the Kiel Center. “We had our chances, they had theirs. They got one at the end and that was the difference,” defenseman Chris McAlpine said. “We’re only down, 2-1. We know there are a few things we can do better. We’ve got to play better when we have the puck and be better passing and looking for the right guy.”

Quenneville wants to see more shots from Brett Hull, who has nine shots and one goal in the series. “I think Hullie knows the game and knows what he has to do and what we need to do,” Quenneville said. “They’re trying to get a matchup of [Nicklas] Lidstrom and [Larry] Murphy against him, and that pairing is as good as any in the league. Pierre [Turgeon, the center on Hull’s line] can make plays. Brett has a big shot.”

Hull, who has not been a factor in the Blues’ losses, said he can’t force shots that have been taken away by Detroit’s defensive blanket. “You play the game the way it comes to you. I’ve never played the game where you go out and think about what you’re going to do,” he said. “It’s not like we’re playing an ordinary team where we’re going to get scoring chances all the time. You have to do good things in your own end and create things from that. We need a little more composure with the puck to create more consistent offense.”

The Red Wings know all about composure. “The experience we gained last year made us more mellow. We don’t get rattled,” winger Darren McCarty said. “[Tuesday’s victory] was a good character win for our club.”