Gorilla Crouch

This game was close for 2 and a third periods, as the officials did what they could to keep the Coyotes in the game. But if you are a Wings fan you have to hope Phoenix makes the playoffs and Detroit ends up playing them at some point. Detroit has outscored Phoenix 14 to 3 in two games and two players have registered hat tricks in those games.

Detroit’s first goal of the game came in the first period and was waived-off. Johan Franzen made a nice move as he stickhandled his way to the side of the net before centering the puck. Kris Draper redirected the puck with his skate blade into the net. After a short video review the goal was disallowed. It seemed like a debatable infraction, but the goal was disallowed.

Phoenix has been playing well lately and the obvious reasons are because they have done a better job backchecking and taking away time and space. The downside is they seem to completely forget about trying to generate offense. They mustered only two shots on goal during the second period and five during the third period, and that was with plenty of further help from the officials.

Detroit’s second goal was nearly waived off as well. While the Wings were on the powerplay Henrik Zetterberg put a shot on net from the right faceoff circle. The puck bounced off Mikael Tellqvist’s mask and just as the mask was falling off his face Tomas Holmstrom buried the puck in the Phoenix goal. Somehow the refs got the call right and allowed the goal. They clearly felt dirty though, as the next period would feature several questionable calls that helped get Phoenix back into the game.

The Wings carried play early in the second period, generating several good scoring chances during the first half of the second period. Detroit was close to putting this game away in the second period, but the officials did their best to keep the outcome in question. Over a period of 7:38 late in the second period the Wings were whistled for 2 minor and 1 major penalties. The first penalty against Pavel Datsyuk was non-existant. The second penalty against Brett Lebda was highly embellished by the Coyote player. And the third penalty against Robert Lang for high sticking was a legit call but the extra 2 minutes that were tacked on was highly questionable. WOOO new NHL! I didn’t see any blood and even when there was a close up of Morris being treated on the bench there was no sign of blood. If he had gingivitis he would have looked worse than he did due to the incidental high stick when he and Robert Lang hit each other near the end boards.

A quick aside - when did Wayne Gretzky start to resemble Quagmire from the Family Guy?

Giggity

Giggity Goo!

Those penalties did the trick as they got the Coyotes back into the game. With a 4:00 power play very late in the second period the Coyotes were able to finally establish a presence in Detroit’s defensive zone. A Phoenix player fell near the side boards just before the first 2:00 of Lang’s penalty were about to expire near the start of the third period. The Red Wings players on the ice seemed to freeze for a second, expecting to be two-men short due to yet another phantom penalty. After a shot was put on net Yanic Perreault put the rebound into the empty net. And just like that the game was tied at 1 goal apiece.

It took a while, but the Wings responded. At the 6:55 mark of the period Pavel Datsyuk was stationed to the side of the net and made a nice centering pass to Tomas Holmstrom in front of the net. Homer displayed some nifty stick-handling as he passed the puck to himself under Tellqvist’s arm before burying the puck in the open net. That put the Wings up 2-1 and the refs once again seemed to start feeling dirty as they sent a parade of Coyote players to the penalty box.

The game was finally put out of reach with the Wings scoring three goals over a span of 7:43, including two power play goals. Detroit has scored 5 power play goals over their past two games. It is also probably no coincidence those were the only two games they won during this west coast road trip. Pavel Datsyuk scored those final two power play goals, giving him five points on the night. He was outdone by Tomas Holmstrom who registered a hat-trick. In the last game between the two teams Mathieu Schneider registered a hat-trick.

It shouldn’t be much of a shock that Holmstrom was the first star of the game and Datsyuk was the second star.

Brett Lebda Kris Draper Mikael Tellqvist Pavel Datsyuk Red Wings Robert Lang Tomas Holmstrom Wayne Gretzky

January 11th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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