Chicago Blackhawks resume rivalry with Detroit Red Wings in Western Conference semifinals

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  Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews celebrates a goal by Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa in the first period as the Blackhawks defeated the Minnesota Wild 5-1 in Game 5 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Chicago, Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Daily Herald, George LeClaire)The Associated Press

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  The Detroit Red Wings celebrate their 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 7 of their first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Anaheim, Calif., Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)The Associated Press

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CHICAGO –  Jonathan Toews and the Chicago Blackhawks got to watch all the action in the NHL playoffs while they waited for an opponent to emerge for the second round.

What they saw from the Detroit Red Wings looked very familiar.

"Just that same relaxed, patient experience that they've shown in the playoffs and makes them a tough team to beat," Toews said. "They got some veteran guys who have won Stanley Cups. They understand what it takes to win during playoff time and that's the reason they came out on top."

Yup, Chicago's next opponent is a very familiar one. Detroit's 3-2 victory in Anaheim in Game 7 on Sunday night set up one last matchup between the "Original Six" teams in the Western Conference semifinals.

Under the NHL's realignment plan, the Red Wings will move to the East next season, meaning they will not face the Blackhawks in the playoffs before the Stanley Cup. That adds another level of intrigue to a best-of-seven series that already features one of the NHL's biggest rivalries in the tense setting of the second round of the postseason.

"I think it's just fitting, final year of being in the Western Conference and we're facing the Hawks here in the playoffs," Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

Detroit had to scramble to extend the longest active playoff streak in major professional sports to 22 straight seasons, winning the last four games of the regular season to secure the seventh spot in the West. Still, it's the lowest playoff seed for the Red Wings since the NHL moved to the 1 vs. 8 conference format in 1993.

That hardly mattered in the first round against Anaheim.

The Red Wings and Ducks alternated wins for the first six games of the playoffs. Anaheim got its first chance to close it out on Friday night, but Henrik Zetterberg scored in overtime to lift Detroit to a 4-3 victory after it blew a two-goal lead with 3½ minutes left in regulation.

Zetterberg then had a goal and an assist in the deciding game as the Red Wings emerged from a 3-2 series deficit for the first time they beat Colorado in the 2002 Western Conference finals. They went on to hoist the Stanley Cup.

"I think we believe in what we do," Zetterberg said. "Of course it's nice to win games and win games in the way we've done it, in overtime, those close games.

"That series is over now. It's a new team and new challenges."

Chicago has been quite the challenge of late. The Blackhawks have won seven in a row against the Red Wings dating to last season, including four games this year. But half of this year's games went to a shootout and another was decided in overtime.

"When we played them during the year, there was maybe one game where it kind of got out of hand," Chicago goalie Corey Crawford said. "But the other games were pretty tight games. We won a couple in shootouts.

"They're a team that can skate with us and obviously they have a lot of skill. It's going to be fun."

The Red Wings caught a break when the NHL scheduled the first game of the series against the Blackhawks for Wednesday night, giving them an extra day to rest following the grueling series against Anaheim and the trip back across the country. There also could be another extra day before Game 2, since the United Center has to stay clear on Friday night for a possible Game 6 between the Bulls and Heat in the NBA playoffs.

But Chicago gets the extra rest as well, and it's taking full advantage of its extended break since it beat Minnesota in five games in the first round. Center Michal Handzus missed practice Monday, but coach Joel Quenneville called it a maintenance day and said he expects him back on the ice on Tuesday. Center Dave Bolland and goalie Ray Emery will be available against Detroit after they missed the series against the Wild with lower body injuries.

"Certainly we've had a good history with them in the past and had some very intense games," Quenneville said. "Had a couple of great games with them this year. It helps with our travel as well, but certainly we're excited about getting into this round. We're going to have our hands full with this team, but we're excited about it."

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AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Romulus, Mich., contributed to this report.

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Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap

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Would-be Chicago bomber apologizes in letter

CHICAGO –  A young Lebanese immigrant awaiting sentencing for placing a backpack he thought held a bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field wrote a letter to the judge saying he drank "all day, every day" for months before the would-be attack.

In a seven page letter to U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, Sami Samir Hassoun apologizes and insists he has worked hard at becoming a better person, including by taking yoga instruction in jail.

The letter was included in a defense filing this week. Hassoun, in custody since his 2010 arrest, is scheduled to be sentenced April 5.

Prosecutors want a 30-year prison sentence for the 25-year-old, who pleaded guilty to weapons charges last year. The defense filing argues Hassoun deserves no more than 20 years, in part because they contend he was egged on by an FBI informant to concoct the bombing scheme.

In his plea agreement, Hassoun admitted he dropped what he believed was a bomb into a trash bin on a crowded street by the Chicago Cubs' stadium in 2010. The fake device was given to him by undercover FBI agents who had been tipped off by the informant.

In the letter — dated Oct. 12, 2012, but released publicly this week — Hassoun tells Gettleman, "I am so ashamed of my actions and of this horrific crime that I've committed."

He describes feeling despondent and confused with his new life as a bakery worker, frustrated by broken dreams of becoming rich after he and his parents moved to the U.S. from Lebanon in 2008.

"By two to three months before my crime, I was drinking all day, every day," he wrote. "I would open a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the morning and finish it by evening, while also drinking vodka and beer."

He smoked marijuana regularly and sometimes used cocaine and ecstasy, he wrote.

Hassoun said he has confronted his self-destructiveness, has taken anger-management courses and is working toward a degree through a University of Ohio program designed for inmates.

Hassoun, who was born in Beruit, blamed what he described as longstanding emotional issues, in part, on trauma that lingered with him since childhood living in Ivory Coast when bloody civil strife broke out in that African nation.

"I witnessed all these horrific and barbaric scenes and images from the balcony of our apartment," he wrote. "I lived in constant fear, hearing rumors that they were invading homes, and raping women and kids."

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Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm

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Suburban Chicago officer charged in fatal crash

CHICAGO –  A suburban Chicago police officer accused of killing two people in a wrong-way collision on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive appeared briefly in court Sunday and a judge set bail at $500,000.

During the hearing, prosecutors said Terrell Garrett's blood alcohol content after Friday's wreck was measured at 0.184, which is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. The North Chicago police officer is charged with two counts each of reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol.

Garrett, 35, was in serious condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and didn't attend the hearing.

Witnesses said Garrett's car was driving at least 60 mph as it sped in the wrong direction on the scenic highway, where the speed limit is 45 mph, according to prosecutors. The collision totaled both vehicles and killed 25-year-old Joaquin Garcia and his friend Fabian Torres, 27.

Relatives of the men said they couldn't believe the judge granted bond for Garrett, who wasn't on duty at the time of the crash.

"I believe he should be in jail," Julian Garcia, Joaquin Garcia's uncle, told the Chicago-Sun Times.

Garcia's mother, Cecilia Garcia, told the newspaper that learning that the man suspected of causing a crash that killed her son makes things "10 times worse" for her.

"He's supposed to be protecting us," she told the paper.

Joaquin Garcia was studying to be a surgical technician at Malcolm X College in Chicago and was set to graduate in May, according to family members. Torres was a first-year student at DePaul University.

"We were supposed to be going to my brother's graduation in a month," said his sister, who is also named Cecilia. "Now, we're planning his funeral."

Garrett, who has been relieved of his police powers, has been placed on administrative leave from his job in North Chicago.

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