Semi-finals post-mortem: Montreal-Detroit

Red Wings accomplished a lot of what they wanted to do in this series.

They wanted to contain Montreal's vaunted power play, and they did---to the tune of killing off 12 of Canadiens' 14 power plays in the series.

Red Wings also wanted to spend more time in Canadiens' zone, and they did that better than was expected.

Red Wings wanted to stay out of the penalty box and they indeed had more power play chances (16 to 14) than Canadiens did.

Red Wings wanted players other than Lindsay-Delvecchio-Howe to score goals, and several players did step up and score.

Finally, Red Wings wanted to keep Canadiens from scoring four-plus goals every night, as Montreal had been doing in the regular season. Montreal scored 17 goals in five games.

So why did Red Wings lose the series in five games?

Basically, Montreal outscored Red Wings badly in the third period throughout the series.

The first three games were tied after 40 minutes and Montreal won all three.

Red Wings led, 2-1, going into the third period of Game 5 but Montreal managed to get the game into overtime, where they won.

Only in Game 4 did Red Wings manage to answer Canadiens all night and eventually take control in the third period.

Bottom line: Canadiens had a knack for scoring big goals when they needed big goals.

Red Wings were pretty much offensively challenged in the series, as they were during the second half of the season. They didn't put enough shots on the Montreal net, plain and simple.

Had Red Wings won Game 5, it would have set up a very interesting Game 6 in Detroit. But alas, Canadiens---as usual---got the big goal in overtime.

Red Wings played better in this series, overall, than they played for most of the season. But Canadiens are too deep and have too much fire power.