Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 25

www.freep.comsports Call Sports: 1-313-222-6660 Scores: 1-900-737-8884 Monday, April 21, 1997 Section 3Dctroit 4frce Press INSIDE U.S. Ties bVW ALSO INSIDE: Lions pleased after second day of NFL draft. Coverage, Page 7D. 7Vam overcomes goalie's blunder in 2-2 match vs. Mexico.

Cjflri' Wncenf, Page 3D. Game Three: Detroit 3, St. Louis 2 TX 100 wins as Piston for Collins 1 1 Ml By perry a. farrell Free Press Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS Sunday's victory No. 100 for Doug Collins was one of his most entertaining as Pistons coach.

Collins became the quickest Pistons coach to 100 career wins, fighting the feisty Indiana Pacers into overtime before a 124-120 victory behind career highs from Grant Hill and Lindsey Hunter at Market Square Arena. Hill scored 38 points; Hunter scored 20 of his 30 in the first half. "This was meaningful to me because this means we've averaged 50 wins a season in a franchise that had been averaging 24 over the previous two years," said Collins, who got to 100 in 164 games. Chuck Daly did it in 171 games. "Our guys did a great job.

It was nice to have Ricky Mahorn back in there. He's going to be able to come and play and give us a lift" Collins said Mahorn would be on the playoff roster, meaning he has to leave a player off. The main candidate is Litterial Green, because Collins might need minutes from Grant Long off the bench. If Charlotte beat Milwaukee on Sunday night, the Pistons (54-28) 6 sings the Blues 1 I MM ml DUANE BURLESONAssociated Press Mark McGwire is congratulated by Geronimo Berroa after his sixth-inning roof-clearing homer, which traveled an estimated 491 feet after Brendan Shanahan scored in the MARY SCROEDERDetroit Free Press second period Sunday. TOM RUSSOAssociated Press Pacers coach Larry Brown talks to Dale Davis during a time-out Sunday's loss to die Pistons might have been Brown's last as coach in Indianapolis.

the playoffs Thursday night at New York as the sixth seed. If Charlotte lost, the Pistons would open Friday night in Atlanta. "We gave ourselves a chance to move up," Collins said. Detroit was 30-11 at home and 24-17 on the road, eight better than last season. It tied the team's second-best road record of 1989-90.

Detroit led, 112-109, with 6.1 Please see PISTONS, Page 6D corner Over the roof ON SUNDAY: Oakland's Mark McGwire became the fourth player to homer over the leftfield roof in Tiger Stadium. THE OTHERS: Minnesota's Harmon Killebrewon Aug. 3, 1962, and Washington's Frank Howard on May 18, 1968. The only Tiger to do it? Cecil Fielder on Aug. 25, 1990.

On hold The June 7 Alan TrammellLou Whitaker day at Tiger Stadium was postponed. "Lou has Informed us that an unresolvable conflict in his schedule has arisen," club president John McHale said. "We look forward to rescheduling." Whitaker had to postpone because of a religious commitment. He is active in Jehovah's Witnesses at home in Lakeland, Fla. Ticket exchanges can be made at the Tiger Stadium box of flee before June 6 for any 1997 home game.

After 0-14, Cubs win! Chicago breaks a team-; record 14-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Mets in the second game of a doubleheader. Page 4D. would-be roof-clearing shots stopped on the bounce by a light tower in recent years, but McGwire got it right Sunday. Moehler put an inside fastball lower than he wished Please see TIGERS, Page 5D Captain gives Wings 2-1 series lead by Jason la canfora Free Press Sports Writer ST. LOUIS Steve Yzerman wouldn't strike back.

The Blues threw elbows and forearms and hacked their sticks at him, but the Red Wings captain wouldn't budge. They ran him early and they ran him late, and Yzerman absorbed it all, too smart to retaliate, too experienced to be baited. He won with his will and he won with his hands, deflecting a shot for the game winning goal, his first of the playoffs. Yzerman led with Yoda-like self-control, and his team followed like Luke Skywalker disciples of discipline on their way to a 3-2 win over the Blues at Kiel Center. The Wings lead the series, 2-1, after dropping Game 1 and will renew acquaintances again Tuesday night "You can't take penalties," Yzerman said, "You'll kill your momen tum.

You just can't take penalties." Words to live by. Words to lead by. "In the playoffs, emotion is demanded of you, but you have to know how to turn it off and skate away, that's part of leadership," said Brendan Shanahan, who also scored his first of the playoffs. "If a future Hall of Famer like Steve Yzerman can take it the rest of us can take it as well." Restraint was the difference, as it has been throughout the series. In the playoff opener, the Red Wings had to kill 10 penalties and lost Sunday, the Blues took 10 penalties, most of the moronic variety, and sat for 16:32 in the penalty box.

Joe Murphy took a double minor for opening an 8- or 9-stitch cut oh the bridge of Kris Draper's nose with his stick. Geoff Courtnall inexplicably Please see RED WlNGS, Page 9D I Wings goalie Mike Vernon, who stopped -24 shots Sunday, guards his post behind fallen Blues goalie Grant Fuhr ROUND ONE Wings lead, 2-1 GAME Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 WHEN Tuesday Friday RESULT Blues 2, Wings 0 Wings 2, Blues 1 Wings 3, Blues 2 SITE TIME St. Louis 8:30 Detroit 7:30 If necessary Sunday St. Louis 2:00 April 29 Detroit 7:30 Channel 50 will show all games not on Fox (Channel 2). Game 6 is on Fox.

finally hit a few harmonious notes against the Blues. "Anytime you get three guys out there forechecking it can be frustrating," Draper said. "We try to go out and stir things up and get our big guys out there on the power play. And our power play was a huge lift for the team tonight" The Nasty Brothers, with veteran Bob Rouse and rookie Jamie Pushor on defense, provide as abrasive a five-man unit as the Wings can offer. They're easy to hate, and it showed.

With Detroit leading, 2-1, early in the second, Blues forward Joe Murphy brought his stick up in Draper's face, opening a gash over the bridge of his nose and putting the Wings on the power play for four minutes. And less than two minutes after Murphy's goal tied the game, 2-2, at 6:36 of the second, Geoff Courtnall robbed his team of momentum when he jumped out of a pile in front of his goal and head-butted Maltby, draw-Please see Keith Gave, Page 9D Wings players enjoy a team meeting You can call than Nasties, but also Instigators III T. LOUIS The Nasty Broth ers? The Legion of Boom? The Yoko Unit? As in: Ono, not those guys again. Call it what you will, the Red Wings' line of Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper and Joe Kocur. Certainly, the St.

Louis Blues have a few choice descriptions of them after Detroit's 3-2 Stanley Cup victory here Sunday. One look at the three told the saga of another hard-fought playoff battle won: Draper wore eight new stitches across the bridge of his nose; Kocur needed a dressing on a bloody knuckle; and Maltby wore a smile. They set the tone with an early goal by Draper. They made the Kiel Center crowd of 19,273 wince with some tenacious hits. But most important, they showed an uncanny ability to initiate the kind of play that drew a series of penalties born of frustration that kept the Blues shorthanded much of the afternoon.

In essence, they were the warm-up band to a Detroit power play that KEITH GAVE NHL rTigers win, ibirt McGwire Raises roof BY JOHN LOWE 1 tree Press Sports Writer 1 The ball rolled off the low back roof of Tiger Stadium and finally landed between two cars in the players' parking lot. Distance from home plate to splashdown: approx-; imately 500 feet Seldom would a solo homer by an opponent qualify as the dominant story on a day when the Tigers win by seven runs, Brian Moehler records his first major-league victory, and Tony Clark moves into the league lead in RBIs with a game-busting three-run homer in a five-run first inning. But Mark McGwire, who has the best homer-to-at-bat ratio in history besides Babe Ruth, was everyone's favorite post-game topic after the Tigers' 9-2 victory Sunday afternoon. His sixth-inning moon shot off Moehler landed on the front incline of the leftfield roof between the light towers, took one hop, and disappeared into lore. Tiger Stadium has had its current configuration since 1938, and this marked the fourth time in those six decades that a right-handed hitter homered over the leftfield roof.

Minnesota's Harmon Kille-brew (1962), Washington's Frank Howard (1968) and the Tigers' Cecil Fielder (1990) beat McGwire to the punch, all in seasons in which they won the home-run title. McGwire and Albert Belle had MARY SCROEDERDetroit Free Press.