Ellis Earns his Wings
Now that’s how a west coast road trip is supposed to go. The Detroit Red Wings went 3-1 after they were able to defeat the Phoenix Coyotes 5-2 tonight. Kirk Maltby was the offensive force as he scored two goals, while Chris Chelios chipped in with two assists. Henrik Zetterberg would have had two goals if not for a really bad penalty call on Tomas Holmstrom for goalie interference during the first period while he was setting a screen for Z. As a result Zetterberg was only credited with one goal and one assist.
The underlying story is that Matt Ellis likely cemented his place on the team with his performance. The former Grand Rapids Griffins captain notched an assist in the game but also was a key contributor while keeping the puck in the offensive zone which lead to Kirk Maltby’s first goal due to a re-direct of Cheli’s shot from the point. Ellis also scored a goal in the San Jose game and registered an assist in the Anaheim game. That gives him a three-game point streak.
Matt over at On the Wings made a very good point in this post when he discusses whether Ellis or Igor Grigorenko will make the team. At this point Ellis’ spot is probably safe since Downey was the player who was placed on waivers. But given how unimpressive Grigorenko has been in North America, it’s going to be interesting to see what he does if/when Downey gets sent down. If Downey doesn’t have to clear waivers in order to be re-assigned to Detroit from Grand Rapids then I guess it’s going to happen. If Grigorenko somehow does a 180 and contributes at the NHL level then the Wings are going to face a dilemma: Ellis is sticking with the team, Grigorenko will possibly stick but if he does the team will lose one of it’s few players willing to defend his teammates.
Jiri Hudler scored his first goal of the season to open up scoring in tonight’s game. Detroit was on the power play although the Phoenix penalty expired just prior to the goal. The second power play unit of Hudler-Cleary-Samuelsson was great at moving with the man advantage and it created a prime scoring chance. Nik Kronvall put a shot on net that bounced off Dan Cleary and rested near the goal post. Hudler swooped in to clean up the garbage and bury the puck to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead.
After Zetterberg’s first goal was waived off the Coyotes responded by scoring the next two goals. They used a trap that gave the Wings fits early on. The first Phoenix goal was scored by Steve Reinprecht as they were able to trap Datsyuk near the Detroit blueline, strip the puck from him and go in on a 4-on-1 against Nick Lidstrom. Derek Morris then scored a goal just after a Phoenix power play expired to put the Yotes up 2-1 and that’s how the first period would end.
It took a period but Detroit eventually adjusted to Phoenix’s trap. The Coyotes scored 2 goals on 6 shots in the first period. They went scoreless on 15 shots for the rest of the game. Dominik Hasek made some key stops but the Red Wings generally did a good job to limit the odd man rushes Phoenix was generating early on by trapping the puck-handler.
The second period was all Kirk Maltby as he scored the only two goals of the period. The first came on the aforementioned work of Ellis along with Kopecky who were solid working along the boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone. The puck was evenutually kicked back to the point and Cheli put a shot on net that was redirected by Maltby and ended up in the Phoenix net. Later, on a delayed penalty, Maltby fired a one-timer from just outside of the faceoff circle that beat Tellqvist to put Detroit up 3-2. That would turn out to be the game-winning goal.
Malts set up Valtteri Filppula with a glorious scoring chance in the 3rd but Fil couldn’t pull the trigger. Shortly after that scoring chance Ellis did a nice job getting in behind the net as Tellqvist tried to play the puck. Ellis quickly centered the puck and Brett Lebda wasted no time depositing the biscuit in the basket to put the Wings up 4-2. Henrik Zetterberg would close out the scoring when he hammered home a nice cross-crease pass from Tomas Holmstrom at the 14:37 mark of the third period.
Here is how the lines looked:
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Kopecky-Filppula-Samuelsson
Cleary-Draper-Maltby
Hudler-Ellis-Downey
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronvall-Lilja
Chelios-Lebda
The top line registered one goal and three assists, although it scored one even-strength goal and allowed two such goals. Zetterberg now has 17 points on the season. This was the first game of the season where neither team scored a specialty teams goal, although several goals were scored just after penalties expired. This was Dominik Hasek’s first win since an October 8th game against the Edmonton Oilers.
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[…] … Ellis, by the way, had a heck of a game. He stood out a lot in the third period and just looked great. He was a major reason the fourth line caused the Coyotes so many problems and his actions behind the net led directly to two goals. He nearly scored himself a couple times and showed incredible hustle. Dave at Gorilla Crouch believes he’s solidified his spot on the team and I completely agree. There’s no way he’ll get sent down after his performance over the whole road trip. […]