FanHouse DarrenHelm

One of the key factors in Detroit's 3-1 win on Saturday was its dominant performance in the face-off circle, as the Wings won 39-of-55 draws. It's an impressive number on its own, but when you consider the Wings were playing without Pavel Datsyuk (winning 52 percent of his draws this postseason) and Kris Draper (64 percent) it's downright scary. And kind of ridiculous.

After the jump, a breakdown of which players did the damage, and who they did it against. Let's just say this: It's ugly for the Penguins, which begs the question: where the hell is Mike Zigomanis when you need him?

DETROIT -- After the Red Wings stopped the Ducks in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Thursday. Detroit forward Mikael Samuelsson said, "Sometimes the stars take each other out a little."

And when the big-name guys cancel each other out, the Wings usually are left in a better position that their opponents, which was the case in Game 7, when Darren Helm, Samuelsson and Dan Cleary provided the final three goals in a 4-3 victory. Jiri Hudler scored the first goal of the night on a power play.

Helm never has scored a goal in the regular season (14 games) but he has four postseason goals, and his breakaway score on Thursday showed off his terrific speed. Samuelsson is a role player, but has a nose for big playoff goals, while Cleary is a grinder. His game-winner with three minutes left Thursday was his first goal of the series.

With 30 teams and 700 players in the league, you'll have to forgive me if I don't know the names of every single player on every single roster.

That said, I ought to know something about who is on the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins. Besides being awesome teams, the players that fill out the lower reaches of each roster tend to be much better than the chaff that popular such bottom-feeders as the Tampa Bay Lightning.

To my own shame, I had never heard of Red Wings forward Darren Helm until late into these Stanley Cup playoffs, and now this so-called "no-name" has made quite an impact in these finals.

Just who is this guy? Let The Windsor Star help fill us in.

Two months ago, Darren Helm was still a project in the eyes of the Detroit Red Wings. Now, he's a player.

Helm had his finest game as an NHLer Monday in the Wings' 4-3 triple overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins ... Helm scored a goal, led all players with six hits, was a plus-one and a noticeable presence in each of his 21 shifts centering Detroit's fourth line.

"I definitely realize how hard it is for a lot of players to get this chance," said Helm, who earned a late season callup after a fine rookie campaign for the Wings' AHL farm team in Grand Rapids.

You'd figure Helm would be a journeyman type, wouldn't you? He looks gruff, plays a physical game, and looks like he's been through more than a few battles.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

After seeing the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs speed by us at Mach 2, it seems as if we're in for something of a re-run in the Conference Finals, as the higher seeds both held serve on home ice to take a 2-0 series lead -- something our roundtable participants seemed to think was sure to be something of a death sentence for the lower seeds.

After Game One in Pittsburgh, Flyers head coach John Stevens said he wanted his team to cut down on the turnovers and bring a more physical game to the ice for Game Two against the Penguins, but it hardly mattered as the Pens prevailed, 4-2. So while the Flyers did tighten things up a bit and raised the bar physically, it wasn't as if the Pens weren't able to answer. If anything, it couldn't help but remind me of the line plenty of folks got fed about the Lemieux/Jagr-led Pens of the 1990s -- that simply because the Pittsburgh was so potent offensively that they might have a difficult time playing against more physical and tight checking squads.

Well, it wasn't true then, and it isn't true now -- not when you've got a slab of beef like Evgeni Makin who's willing to take your best shot, get off the ice and punish you with his skill (his Game One slapper shorthanded will be on playoff highlight films forever) and then stick his forearm into the earflap of your most skilled player, knocking him into next week (Daniel Briere). Throw in a goal from a player like Maxime Talbot, and well, it's hard not to think that all hope is lost in Philadelphia.