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.

There may be a lot of you who are surprised there is hockey this weekend.

I'll freely admit to being one of them. I'm even more surprised that there are two games this weekend.

Both the Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers were left for dead after falling behind 3-0 in their respective series. Even though they were playing on home ice, they were heavy underdogs in Game Four.

They both got the job done. Their prize? They're being left for dead entering road games this weekend.

While I think it would be outright lunacy to predict one of these series will be extended, you can't rule it out. After all, most of you ruled out these series even going five games, and here we are.

Dallas tries first, as they face Detroit Saturday in "Hockeytown". We'll be live-blogging the game here at FanHouse, so join us for the action starting at 1pm Eastern.

Can this added confidence carry the Stars to a Game Five upset?

(Still to come: The conference finals indeed continue, NBC prays for a regulation end to Saturday's game, and a YouTube to remember from the incomparable Tie Domi)

The Associated Press reports that Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen will miss his fourth consecutive game as the Wings take on the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals Saturday afternoon.

Franzen's time on the sidelines began after the forward complained of headaches following Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Evidently, he began experiencing persistent pain early in the Semifinal series between Detroit and Colorado, but kept that to himself until Friday morning. No single incident has been pinpointed as the cause of the headaches.

The team labeled his condition "concussion-like symptoms and he was kept from physical activity until being cleared for off-ice exercises yesterday. Detroit General Manager Ken Holland told the Macomb Daily's Bruce MacLeod that Franzen will not hit the ice until tomorrow at the earliest.

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.

No programming hole to fill Saturday, NBC. The Dallas Stars will play at least one more game.

After an underwhelming performance in Game Three Monday night, the Stars rebounded with a 3-1 win Wednesday night. The Western Conference Finals will go at least five games, as Detroit's lead is now 3-1.

Dallas came out flying early, got three power plays in the first period, and got nothing out of it. It was 0-0 after one period, and many of Dallas' best chances ended with shots that were blocked or missed the net. The Stars also had trouble connecting on passes down low, which took away some chances.

The Wings had their chances, and they had a controversial disallowed goal in the second period. Tomas Holmstrom was ruled in the crease on a Wings' power-play goal. Replays indicated that Holmstrom was on the ice, but he wasn't in the crease. At all. He was screening Marty Turco, but was doing it within the rules. The totally legal goal was waved off, with no hope for a review from upstairs.

Dallas struck first late in the second, as Loui Eriksson stuffed home a bad Chris Osgood rebound. Before scoring, the Stars had to weather quite the Detroit storm. The Wings outshot Dallas badly, had three power plays, and clearly had the better of the play.

(Still to come: More on Game Four, an update on Johan Franzen's condition, and a celebratory YouTube)

This isn't news anymore. The Detroit Red Wings can advance to the Stanley Cup Finals with a win tonight. It would be Detroit's fifth trip to the Finals since 1995.
What could be more notable is that the Wings have a shot at their tenth straight win tonight. All nine games in this current streak have come with Chris Osgood as the starting goaltender. Despite this 9-0 run, there may not be a more underappreciated goalie in these playoffs than Osgood.

When he took over, he was immediately overshadowed by the Game Five performance of Nashville's Dan Ellis. Then Jose Theodore's head-stand against Minnesota got everyone talking. This round, it was all about the great play of Marty Turco.

Osgood has beaten all three of them, and he's done it without losing a single game. I don't care how good the team is in front of him. That's impressive.

Join us after the jump for a live discussion. We'll start the festivities at 7:45pm Eastern, 6:45pm Central, and 4:45pm Alaskan.

With both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals essentially on the brink, I was wondering -- what the heck happens to the postseason schedule if each of those series end in a four-game sweep?

Heck, it was hard enough going Sunday-Thursday last week without any hockey between Round Two and Round Three. How in the world would puckheads be able to cope with the prospect of a massive layoff between Round Three and the Stanley Cup Finals?

Fear not, for we have uncovered evidence that the powers that be are already considering just that eventuality. We've paired this news -- provided via the tireless Sean Leahy -- with a picture of the Cup and actress Lindsay Lohan, because, well, you never know when Ms. Lohan might want to check her schedule and plan around the Finals.

After all, she's originally from Long Island and they used to win Cups there a lot. Though, to be sure, not anytime in recent history.

With that, here it is, all mapped out:

Red Wing & Penguins sweep 4-0
Game One: Tuesday, 5/20 @Detroit
Game Two: Thursday, 5/22 @Detroit
Game Three: Saturday, 5/24 @Pittsburgh
Game Four: Monday, 5/26 @Pittsburgh

If one or both series lasts five games
Game One: Thursday, 5/22 @Detroit
Game Two: Saturday, 5/24 @Detroit
Game Three: Monday, 5/26 @Pittsburgh
Game Four: Wednesday, 5/28 @Pittsburgh

If one or both series goes to six games
Game One: Saturday, 5/24 @Detroit
Game Two: Monday, 5/26 @Detroit
Game Three: Wednesday, 5/28 @Pittsburgh
Game Four: Friday, 5/30 @Pittsburgh

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.

The Detroit Red Wings pushed the Dallas Stars to the brink of elimination last night with a 5-2 win last night in Game 3. The Stars played the Wings fairly close until they gave up a shorthanded goal to Henrik Zetterberg early in the third period. Detroit then put on a passing clinic and allowed Dallas just four shots in the final frame.

Zetterberg's goal was a highlight reel tally as the Red Wing forward took the puck nearly coast-to-coast and beat Brad Richards one-on-one before sending a shot past Marty Turco. The goal made it 4-2 Detroit and was a backbreaker for the Stars. They no longer look like giant killers, as evidenced by the poor backchecking effort by Stephane Robidas and Mike Ribeiro on Zetterberg's goal.

Pavel Datsyuk had a big night for Detroit, notching his first career hat trick as he continues to debunk the myth that he does not show up for the playoffs. Jiri Hudler scored the other Detroit goal. Nicklas Grossman and Brad Richards scored for Dallas.

So the European flavor of the day is future Red Wing Ville Leino, who's the greatest thing since Dallas signee Fabian Brunnstrom (who was the greatest thing since who, Jiri Dopita?). And actually, Leino is apparently better than Brunnstrom, despite being the less-hyped of the Scandanavians (I guess the Wings are kicking the Stars' butts there, too).

Leino is also further proof of the sheer genius of Ken Holland and the Red Wings' European scouting brain-trust (apparently they have a "new Finnish scout" to add to the group that not only knew how good Henrik Zetterberg was going to be, but also had the insight to know that everyone else was so friggin' clueless that they could waste picks on guys like Andrei Maximenko and wait until the seventh round to snag Hank). I mean, here's a guy (Leino) who finished second in Finland's top league in scoring and was the League MVP -- the only way he ends up on a team's radar is if that team has an internet connection boots on the ground in Finland, right? Either that or a copy of EA Sports' NHL 08.

Now, to make a point, I'm willing to admit that I'm a total roster geek when it comes to my video games. So when I went to see if Leino was in the game (he is), I noticed that he's got a very good rating. How good? His 83 rating is the best rating of any player in the SM-Liiga under the age of 28 who wasn't drafted by an NHL team (and only Kim Hirschovits, a 2002 Rangers pick, is rated higher than Leino).

Which leaves us with two questions: First, is the Red Wings' system of European scouts really as impressive as that of EA Sports we're led to believe, and second, how long before Ville Viitaluoma is the next big thing? He is, after all, rated at 84.

Just days after the Dallas Stars landed the much-hyped Swedish talent Fabian Brunnstrom, the Detroit Red Wings have made a European signing of their own: 24-year-old Finnish Elite League star Ville Leino. Evidently, the signing was made without Red Wings GM Ken Holland having seen Leino play. Hit the YouTube video above for footage of Leino in action as #89.

Leino put up 28 goals and 49 assists in 55 games in the FEL this season, winning the Oskanen Award as the league's best player in the process. Hockey writer Risto Pakarinen, a Finn working in Sweden, told FanHouse colleague James Mirtle, "Brunnstrom is not the hottest player around here. This guy is."

Leino's own coach sounds a little less certain about his now former player's ability. He told Matt Wuest of Red Wings Central, "It will be interesting to see how he adapts to the skating of the NHL and the smaller rink. I don't know if it will help him or hurt him. It's not that he's a bad skater, it's just that he's not overly fast."

Ken Holland told Dave Waddell of the Windsor Star that the plan is to bring Leino over to North America next season to give him a chance to make the Wings. If he's not able to make the team, it looks like they'll send him back to Finland. Holland did not rule out a possible stint in Grand Rapids, however.

This looks like a strong signing by the Wings. They generally don't talk about recently-signed prospects making the leap to the NHL, so you know they think highly of this guy. If he's that good, Wings fans should not be upset about the team striking out on Brunnstrom.

It is a little strange to see the Stars sign a Swede and the Wings sign a Finn a couple days apart, though. Only time will tell which team got the better player.

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.