Yes, that's right; someone who played 55 games in the American Hockey League this season stepped up on Wednesday night to decide the Western Conference Final for his Detroit Redwings against the Chicago Blackhawks. With just 23 NHL games under his belt, Darren Helm has not scored a single NHL goal in the regular season, yet this was his third in the 2009 playoffs. This isn't the first time he's helped take the Wings to the Stanley Cup final either, he played a big part in last year's Cup win as well, now he scored the game winning goal 3:58 into the first overtime period. Otherwise, this game was low-scoring with the first goal coming six minutes into the third period. Hawks equalised with seven minutes left to send the match into overtime.

The Detroit-Chicago result meant that last year's Stanley Cup Final line up will be repeated with the Pittsburgh Penguins winning their fourth Eastern Conference Final meeting against Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. This time there was no way back for the 'Canes and they had to surrender to the superior Penguins, who outscored Carolina 20-9 over the four games. However, the evening started brightly for the Hurricanes, scoring just 96 seconds into the match, but it was not to be. By taking the Prince of Wales Trophy out of the hands of NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly's hands, Penguins' Captain Sidney Crosby defied years of superstition. The taboo of several years was to touch the trophy presented to the winners of the Easter Conference final. However, Crosby avoided the trophy like the plague last year and it didn't work. This year, he gladly received the trophy and posed for photos together with alternate captains Gonchar and Malkin.

Game 1 of the 2009 Stanley Cup final between Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Redwings will be on Saturday evening. A year ago, the Wings took the Cup in six matches against the Penguins. How many will there be this year?

All the best.