Norris Division Semi-Finals (Nikolai Borschevsky BIO Below} (N2) Detroit Red Wings vs. (N3) Toronto Maple Leafs This was the 23rd playoff series meeting between these two teams. Both teams split the prior 22 playoff meetings. Detroit won the most recent meeting in six games in the 1988 Norris Division Semifinals. In a revival of the heated Original Six rivalry, Nikolai Borschevsky's game seven overtime goal gave Toronto the series and made them the sixth club to eliminate a team with a better regular season record in the first round of the playoffs. This was also Toronto's first playoff series win over Detroit since the Maple Leafs beat the Red Wings in the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals. Until 2009, this was the last Clarence Campbell/Western Conference playoff series to be played entirely within the Eastern Time Zone. April 19 Toronto Maple Leafs 3–6 Detroit Red Wings Joe Louis Arena Recap April 21 Toronto Maple Leafs 2–6 Detroit Red Wings Joe Louis Arena Recap April 23 Detroit Red Wings 2–4 Toronto Maple Leafs Maple Leaf Gardens Recap April 25 Detroit Red Wings 2–3 Toronto Maple Leafs Maple Leaf Gardens Recap April 27 Toronto Maple Leafs 5–4 OT Detroit Red Wings Joe Louis Arena Recap April 29 Detroit Red Wings 7–3 Toronto Maple Leafs Maple Leaf Gardens Recap May 1 Toronto Maple Leafs 4–3 OT Detroit Red Wings Joe Louis Arena Recap Toronto won series 4–3 Nikolai Konstantinovich Borschevsky (Russian: Николай Константинович Борщевский; born January 12, 1965) is a Russian former professional ice hockey player and the current head coach of the Atlant Moscow Oblast of the KHL. Nicknamed "Stick" due to his diminutive frame, he was a star in the Soviet Union and went on to play in the National Hockey League for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars. Despite a successful NHL debut in 1992–93, he never achieved the same level of success in North America, with injuries limiting his effectiveness. He retired in 1998 after a second stint with Spartak Moscow. Russian career He spent the majority of his career playing in the Soviet Union, becoming a mainstay with Dynamo Moscow and later rivals Spartak Moscow. At Dynamo, he became a regular with the team and showed signs of future stardom, recording a high of 11 goals and 18 points in 37 games in 1987–88. Two years later, he moved to Spartak where he blossomed into a star. His goal totals improved every year and he scored at a point-a-game pace, leading the team in scoring in each of the three years he spent at Spartak. His success at club level later translated to success at the international level, where he figured prominently for the Unified Team that won gold at the 1992 Winter Olympics, scoring seven goals in eight games. NHL career His success at Spartak and at Albertville drew the attention of NHL scouts, who began to look more attentively at Russian hockey after the dissolution of the Soviet Union allowed for an influx of Russian hockey players to North America. The Leafs made him their third choice, 77th overall in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft. He made an immediate impact upon arriving to the NHL, scoring 34 goals and netting 40 assists in 78 games for Toronto in 1992–93, including the Game 7 overtime winner for the Leafs in their division semi-final series with the Detroit Red Wings. Despite his early success, he was limited to 45 games in 1993–94 due to injuries, although he managed to record 14 goals and 35 points. During the 1994–95 NHL lockout he returned to Spartak for nine games recording six points, but his return to the Leafs once hockey resumed saw him limited to 19 games where he recorded only five points- none of them goals. Borschevsky was traded at the trade deadline that year to the Calgary Flames for a sixth-round pick, where he lasted another eight games and picked up five more points (none goals). He failed to appear in a single game in Calgary's first round playoff loss to the San Jose Sharks, leading to his departure in the offseason to the Dallas Stars. In Dallas, he managed to score for the first time in the NHL since the 1993–94 season (just once though), but injuries again curtailed his season, allowing him to dress only in 12 games until parting ways with the Stars in early December.[1] His NHL career over, Borschevsky subsequently moved to Kölner Haie of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga later in the 1995–96 season, appearing in eight games and recording four assists, before finishing his career with Spartak, winning the Russian scoring title in 1996–97 before retiring after a 27-point campaign in 1997–98