Pavs, Hank and Huds lead Wings over Preds
Gregory Shamus - Getty Images
On the night Chauncey Billups returned to the Pistons lineup, Pavel Datsyuk put on his own passing exhibition, dropping 4 dimes as the Wings beat the Nashville Predators 5-3. With the win the Wings moved within 2 points of Nashville for the division lead and 3 points of Anaheim for the top spot in the Western Conference.
Nashville took early 1-0 and 2-1 leads with some nice passing of their own. Steve Sullivan made a great pass to Greg Zanon who was driving to the front of the Detroit net. Daniil Markov was slow in backchecking on Zanon, which allowed the Predator d-man to score his first NHL goal. That goal put the Preds up 1-0 before Henrik Zetterberg responded to tie the game. He carried the puck across the blue line before making a nifty move to gain inside position on the defender. He wristed a shot on net that somehow eluded Tomas Vokoun before tucking inside the far post for a goal. It was a pretty weak goal but just like that the game was tied at one.
The Preds responded in short order. Detroit had the puck in the offensive zone as the Lang, Cleary and Samuelsson line was on the ice. Dan Cleary had the puck along the boards and was double-teamed. He tried to pass the puck to Robert Lang but Nashville forced the turnover and just like that they had a 3 on 1 rush against Brett Lebda. Lebda did what he could but it simply wasn’t enough as Scott Hartnell made a pass to Jordin Tootoo who roofed the puck over Dominik Hasek to restore the Preds’ 1 goal lead. The first period would end with Nashville up 2-1.
But once again Henrik Zetterberg had the answer to pull the Wings even. About 90 seconds into the 2nd period, on a rush into the offensive zone, he faked a pass before turning hard into a 270 degree spin and backhanding a shot on net. Once again the puck somehow evaded Tomas Vokoun and found the back of the net. Nashville coach Barry Trotz had seen enough and pulled Vokoun for Chris Mason. The Predators seemed to respond to the goal and the change in net. Less than a minute after Zetterberg tied the game, Dan Hamhuis threw the puck at the net as it was about to cross the blue line and clear the zone. Andreas Lilja made contact with the weak shot, but rather than move out of harm’s way, the puck bounced off his stick and eluded Dominik Hasek and ended up in the Detroit net.
Nashville responded by playing solid physical hockey. The winds were in their sails and they finished every check. At the halfway point of the game they appeared to have weathered the storm, regained the lead and seemed like they were prepared to protect the one-goal lead. But that plan was foiled when Steve Sullivan was whistled for a penalty* at the 10:36 mark of the second period. Detroit’s power play has improved quite a bit since their early season woes. Fox Sports Detroit put up a stat that indicated Detroit’s power play is 3rd in the NHL since January 6th. Why use the entirely random date of January 6th as your starting point? I don’t care so long as it indicates the power play is starting to become a true weapon again.
It was during this power play that Pavel Datsyuk really made his imprint on the game. He controlled the puck along the right side board and fired a perfect pass to Nicklas Lidstrom, who had moved up from the point. Lidstrom one-timed the pass from just inside the left faceoff circle past Mason to knot the game at 3-3. From that point forward it was all Detroit.
The fourth line got into the act for the second straight game. Valtteri Filppula carried the puck across the blue line along the left side boards and made a nice pass to Jiri Hudler who was driving towards the front of the net. Hudler took the pass to Mason’s right and quickly fired the puck past the Predator netminder to give Detroit a 4-3 lead. Hudler’s goal would turn out to be the game-winner, his second such goal in row. Given how little time he gets in terms of shifts his goal scoring has been pretty impressive. He has 8 goals, which ranks him in the top 10 on the team. He is tied with Kris Draper and is only one goal behind Jason Williams and two goals behind some guy named Nicklas Lidstrom.
Speaking of repeat performances, Pavel Datsyuk registered a point on the insurance goal that put the game away for the second game in a row. He was in the same spot as he was on Lidstrom’s power play goal. This time he centered the puck to Tomas Holmstrom, who was cutting to the net. Homer gathered up the pass and quickly put a shot past Mason to give Detroit a 5-3 lead. Datsyuk had one final chance to register another point when Nashville decided to pull their goaltender in order to put an extra attacker on the ice. Rather than take a shot on net as he crossed the blue line into the offensive zone, he tried to pass the puck to Zetterberg to get his linemate a hat trick. The pass was broken up and with that the last real chance for any scoring in the game.
Overall Dominik Hasek was solid. He really couldn’t do anything about the first two goals. The third goal was a little soft, but it was also a shot that Andreas Lilja should have easily controlled. The Wings showed impressive resolve when Nashville retook the lead by a score of 3-2 off of a fluky goal. Mathieu Schneider did not play and it sounds like he will not play until sometime after the All Star break. Given how the team has played they can certainly afford to rest him and let him get fully healthy.
The Wings are heading into the All Star break in as good a position as any fan could hope for. They have two tough games remaining prior to the break. First comes a Columbus team that is just starting to get healthy and then play a game the following day against the Avalanche in Colorado. I suspect Chris Osgood will get the start against Columbus as the Wings have been reluctant to start Dominik Hasek in games that take place on consecutive days.
* = new NHL penalty
Henrik Zetterberg Jiri Hudler Pavel Datsyuk Red WingsNo Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
