Gorilla Crouch

Mathieu Schneider Celebrates goal number 200
Julian H. Gonzalez - AP Photo

If my post this morning seemed a little less than enthused it was. What should have been a marquee matchup between two of the best teams in the league definitely appeared to have lost some of its luster due to all of the injuries to both teams.

The truth was that the game ended up being fairly entertaining. Detroit had at least a half dozen very good, high-quality scoring chances in the first two periods and would have possibly put the game away early if not for some unrelenting goalposts. Nashville eventually took the lead and tied the game late in the third period to send the game to overtime. Then the Wings had to deal with a shootout skills competition they have not typically had success with.

The Red Wings really only went with 3 lines tonight. Here are how the lineups looked:

Filppula - Datsyuk - Franzen
Calder - Lang - Hudler
Maltby - Draper - Langfeld
Ellis - Hussey - Bootland

Booter eventually moved up to the grind line and played a little over 9 minutes. The fourth line averaged about two minutes for the entire game, including overtime. Detroit’s best forwards were Pavel Datsyuk, Robert Lang and Kyle Calder. Datsyuk scored a goal in regulation and another in the shootout. Datsyuk opened scoring with a pretty outside - inside move as he skated around the defender like he was planning on attempting a wrap-around shot. But he quickly moved towards the post and flipped the puck up on the forehand side and beat Tomas Vokoun.

THE HIGHLIGHT REEL


Nashville scored the next two goals to go up 2-1. Kyle Calder notched an assist on Robert Lang’s power play goal that tied the score at 2 at the 12:30 mark of the second period. Calder has scored a point in every game since he was traded to Detroit. He was smack dab in front of Tomas Vokoun and obviously had the netminder’s full attention when Lang put the rebound in the net. Langer was stationed about 5 feet away from the net to Vokoun’s right; it was nice to see the big center go down low and clean up the garbage.

With the power play goal Detroit appeared to regain momentum. 25 seconds after Lang scored the Wings were able to spring Mathieu Schneider on a breakaway. He got behind everyone and Lang made a perfect pass to the defenseman. Schneider beat Vokoun high stick-side and gave Detroit a 3-2 lead. The goal, which came at the 12:55 mark of the second period, was the 200th of his career.

Chris Osgood was decent in net, but if he was sharper Detroit would have likely won in regulation. If the Wings would have won in regulation they would have moved into a first place tie with Nashville for the highest point total in the NHL. But Osgood was sharp during the shootout, only allowing Paul Kariya to score. Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen scored for Detroit in the shootout. With the shootout win Detroit is now one point behind the Preds with a game in hand.

Jiri Hudler was solid. He played 16:33 and led the team with a +2 rating. He participated in the shootout but did not score. Detroit went 1-5 on the power play while Nashville went 1-3. Faceoffs were pretty even, with the Preds holding a narrow 52-48% advantage. Jordin Tootoo got a bit of what he deserved when he went to put a check on a Red Wing but missed and went headfirst into the Detroit bench. It was the “check of the game”. Speaking of hits, the Wings outhit Nashville 29-19. Detroit was very generous though, giving away the puck 22 times compared to 9 for Nashville.

Red Wings

March 6th, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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