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.

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.

Much has been made of the end-of-game incident Saturday involving Mike Ribeiro of the Dallas Stars and Chris Osgood of the Detroit Red Wings.

As the Wings' 2-1 win closed out, Osgood appeared to put his stick out in an effort to butt-end Ribeiro. The Star forward responded with a two-hand chop across the top of the net, which Osgood sold as if a sniper in the fifth row of the upper deck had just picked him off.

TSN is reporting that neither player will be suspended, but fines were levied against both. Dallas' Steve Ott was also fined for his attack of Detroit's Kris Draper after the official let him (Draper) get away with faceoff interference.

In the end, discretion on the NHL's part is the right move. Suspending Ribeiro probably would have required a suspension of the obvious instigator, Osgood. And I'm pretty sure the league doesn't want to suspend a goaltender who is 8-0 so far in the playoffs.

Game Three should be interesting Monday night in Dallas. Typically, a player who two-hands a goaltender the way Ribeiro did would be required to pay for his sin at some point. However, it's the playoffs. Such redemption may have to wait until October, when the games aren't quite as meaningful.

With all due respect to my colleague Jes Golbez, I feel the urge to chime in on Ribeiro Slash-gate. With the amount of Pro-Osgood press the story is getting, I'm a little surprised about how quickly everyone has cleared him of any and all charges. Sure, he took a "Chris Simon" right to the midsection, but was it really that bad? Maybe it's my eyesight, but it doesn't look half as painful as Osgood's acting job. After taking a hit that probably wouldn't have hurt my cat, Osgood crumples to the ice like he had just taken a gun shot.

I'm sorry, but this is not soccer. Hockey players are tough or at the very least try and act like it. Osgood crumples to the ice after getting slashed and writhes in pain as the trainer assists him. It looks serious. It looks like a scary incident. Did he bruise a rib? Worse? Nope. As you can see at the 1:43 mark of this video, Osgood doesn't even need any help getting off the ice. He is actually so hurt that he can get right back up and celebrate a Game Two win with his teammates. Give me a break.

One more point needs to be made before we jump all over Ribeiro -- let's remember that Osgood isn't the only victim here. There's another point to be made, one that can't be seen on blurry YouTube videos. If you check out this video from ESPN, you can clearly see Osgood nail Ribeiro in the face with the end of his stick. He even moved it a bit to make sure he caught the Stars forward. Cheap shot? Absolutely. There's no need for that.

Now don't get me wrong, what Ribeiro did was cheap. It was uncalled for. There is no place for it in hockey. What we have here is a case where nobody is right. Osgood was wrong for catching Ribeiro with his stick (you can clearly seem him move it in Ribeiro's direction as he skates by) just as much as Ribeiro is wrong for taking a swing at Osgood (we have enough Chris Simons and Todd Bertuzzis). The old adage goes "two wrongs don't make a right" and in Game Two, that certainly seemed to be the case.