Before the Red Wings Became Champions, They Suffered One of Their Most Painful Playoff Losses

A stunning 1994 first-round playoff exit against the Sharks became one of their final lessons on the road to ending the Red Wings' Stanley Cup drought.

Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood Credit: Julian H. Gonzalez-USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY Sports

The Red Wings of the late 1990s are remembered as a team that won Stanley Cups, were chock-full of Hall of Famers, and were one of hockey’s great dynasties. But before they learned how to win in the postseason, they endured some nasty stumbles along the way. Few were more shocking than April 30, 1994.

Detroit entered the playoffs as the Western Conference’s number one seed. San Jose was making the first playoff appearance in franchise history. The Red Wings had 46 wins and 100 points during the regular season and possessed an offense that had more stars than what the crew of the Titanic saw in the sky the night of April 14, 1912.

Unfortunately, the Sharks were the iceberg that ultimately sank the Red Wings’ potential playoff run before it could get started. San Jose came into the playoffs with 33 wins and 82 points.

A roster that has Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Ray Sheppard, Dino Ciccarelli, Paul Coffey, Nicklas Lidstrom, Slava Kozlov, and Keith Primeau should be a shoo-in to defeat a team whose leading scorer was 35-year-old Sergei Makarov, who paced the Sharks with 68 points in the regular season.

Meanwhile, Fedorov led the Red Wings with 120 points en route to winning the Hart Trophy later that summer. In fact, the Wings had six players who had more points than Makarov. It didn’t matter to the Sharks in the least.

This wasn’t supposed to be the end of the Red Wings’ season. They even held a 3-2 series lead, meaning they had two opportunities to knock out the Sharks. Instead, the Sharks pulled a Buster Douglas and the Red Wings became Mike Tyson.

In Game 7, the Red Wings and Sharks were tied 2-2 late in the third period when rookie goaltender Chris Osgood attempted to clear the puck from behind his own net. The puck ended up on the stick of Sharks center Jamie Baker, who scored what became the series-winning goal in a 3-2 loss for the Red Wings.

The San Jose loss became part of Detroit’s postseason education. After being upset by the Sharks, the Red Wings were swept in the 1995 Stanley Cup Final by Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils. The Red Wings rolled through the 1995-96 season with 62 wins, only to get eliminated by the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final.

Then came 1997.

The Red Wings finally broke through and won their first Stanley Cup in 42 years and then repeated in 1998. Osgood would rebound from 1994 and help lead the Wings to a Stanley Cup in 1998 and 2008. The Baker miscue could have been the defining image of Osgood’s career.

Instead, history turned it into an early chapter in the history of a goaltender and a franchise that still had to learn how to win, and win they did.