Coffee is for Closers
Mike Babcock’s Keys to the Game
Holy. Crap. About midway through the second period I was wondering if the Wings were going to get shutout for the first time in like forever. The Islanders brought their A game early on and my only thought was “when the hell did the San Jose Sharks relocate to Long Island?” New York controlled the boards, pounded the Wings and dominated the first half of tonight’s game.
That domination started early, with the Isles scoring the first goal 22 seconds into the game. New York had the forecheck in full effect and the puck was centered to Mike Sillinger. He put a shot on net, kept his stick on the ice and eventually put the rebound past Dominik Hasek to stake the Islanders to a 1-0 lead. The period would end with New York up 1-0, but the Isles dominated play, finishing checks and putting a major crimp in Detroit’s efforts to control the puck.
During the first half of the second period New York looked to put the game away. First they scored a shorthanded goal at the 7:44 mark. Shawn Bates registered the goal that put New York up 2-0. Less than 4 minutes later Jason Blake put a shot on net that trickled through Hasek’s five hole and gave the Islanders a commanding 3-0 lead. At that point I had written the game off and was only concerned with not getting shut out. As a fan you have your own coping mechanisms and mine were quite modest. Just avoid the shutout and move on.
But the Red Wings had other ideas. New York’s physical play helped them take the early lead, but it also led to their downfall. They committed two penalties in the third period, and both resulted in power play goals for Detroit. The first goal came from the stick of Niklas Kronwall at the 3:24 mark. Tomas Holmstrom was active in front of the net as usual and screened Isles goaltender Rick DiPietro just enough for Kronner’s shot to find the back of the net. Just like that the shutout was history.
The Wings got back on the board a little over 90 seconds later. Nicklas Lidstrom made a great cross-ice pass to Dan Cleary, who was on the doorstep of the goalmouth to DiPietro’s left side and buried the glorious scoring chance. The goal drew the Wings within 1 goal and officially made this contest a game once again. Detroit had the winds in their sails and controlled play during the third stanza.
The Wings evened the score at the 10:12 mark when Nicklas Lidstrom scored from the point on the power play. But the scorer eventually awarded the goal to Homer, and just like that the game was knotted up at 3 goals apiece. The Wings had three chances in the final 2 minutes as they forced faceoffs in the New York zone. But they could not win the faceoff on any of the three faceoffs so the game went to overtime.
The Wings finally took control of the game in overtime, as they were able to take advantage of New York’s aggressive play. At about the 2:50 mark of overtime Detroit was able to get an odd man rush. Both Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg rushed into the offensive zone on the attack. The captain knocked the puck out of the air and carried it to the point where DiPietro overcommitted to cut off the angle of Lidstrom’s shot. So the defenseman passed the puck back to Zetterberg, who quickly shot the puck past the New York netminder and ended the game.
This was a big win for Detroit. They were dominated during the first half of this game and there was no reason to think they would be able to score a goal, much less win the game. Henrik Zetterberg was the first star, probably due to the fact he scored the game-winning goal. Kronner was the third star as he scored the goal that got Detroit going. But Nicklas Lidstrom could have easily been the first star as he registered 3 assists. It was the kind of performance you expect from a captain and I think he really earned his proverbial stripes tonight. Dan Cleary Henrik Zetterberg Nicklas Lidstrom Niklas Kronwall Red Wings Tomas Holmstrom
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[…] Other recaps: Gorilla Crouch … Abel to Yzerman … Freep … News […]
[…] The two 2-0 comebacks in particular remind me of an improbable comeback Detroit had in a game against the New York Islanders on January 30. The Islanders played similar to the way San Jose has early in many of the games in this series and built up a 3-0 lead in that game before the Red Wings clawed back to win that game 4-3 in overtime. […]