2nd Line leads Wings past Nucks 3-2
Happy Hudler sinks the Nucks
Canadian Press Photo: Richard Lam
It looks like the second line is starting to gel. Mikael Samuelsson scored a goal with 17 seconds remaining in the first period to put Detroit up 2-1. Jiri Hudler would then put a nifty move on Roberto Luongo before lifting the puck past him to score the game-winning goal. His score came with 1:00 left in the second period.
Over the past two games the second line has scored 3 goals and notched 4 assists. That’s great news as it was the only line that hadn’t really contributed on offense. With this newfound production it might make it easier for Mike Babcock to keep his top line together. The DZH line scored another goal as Homer buried a rebound from a Pavel Datsyuk shot to tie the game at 1-1 just 12 seconds after Vancouver took the lead. Henrik Zetterberg along with Datsyuk both were credited with assists. So Z has scored a point in 12 straight games and now has 21 points this season.
Zetterberg leads the league in points, assists, and is second in goals scored.
If the second line stays hot and the third lines plays as well as it has of late then the big question is where Johan Franzen fits into the lineup. The big forward said he’d be able to play as soon as tomorrow night’s game against Edmonton. So we’ll see how that plays out.
Niklas Kronwall missed last night’s game with a sore groin and Derek Meech got his first start. The young d-man looked pretty good as he played nearly 13 minutes. He was good moving the puck in transition and put two shots on net. Chris Chelios seemed to have an off game, so I wonder how much of that might have been due to having a new defensive partner. He had trouble clearing pucks from his office down near the endboards, although another new pairing of Lilja and Lebda were on the ice when Matt Cooke buried a rebound to to put the Canucks up 1-0 at the 5:48 mark of the first period.
Each of Detroit’s three goals came off rushes. The first goal came when Henrik Zetterberg made a pass to Datsyuk that allowed him to skate in and get a decent shot on net from the left wing. The shot was blocked but Holmstrom was there to bury the rebound. The second goal came off a nice defensive play from Nick Lidstrom to steal the puck and send Val Filppula and Mikael Samuelsson on a 2 on 1. Samuelsson gave the puck to Fil, who faked a shot to draw the defender to him and Luongo out of the net. He then passed the puck back to Sammy, who had a wide open net and buried the shot. The final goal came when Mikael Samuelsson made a nice pass to send Hudler in on Luongo. Jiri demonstrated some deft stickwork before roofing a backhander past Luongo.
The Wings held a narrow 32-29 shot advantage, which is unusual for a team that leads the league in shot differential by a wide margin. Detroit only drew two power plays and didn’t capitalize on either. Vancouver drew five penalties, and while they weren’t credited with a power play goal their second goal came after the man advantage expired but Detroit couldn’t clear the puck from their zone. Markus Naslund poked the puck into the Detroit net after Chris Osgood made a fine save on a Taylor Pyatt shot.
“Hey guys, where’d the puck go?”
Canadian Press Photo: Richard Lam
Chris Osgood was sharp once again, although he made a bone-headed play when he tried to score a goal after Roberto Luongo vacated the Vancouver net in order to give the Canucks an extra attacker. The play almost blew up in his face as his shot was blocked by a Vancouver player. The puck ended up being shot into Osgoods pads. Taylor Pyatt swatted at Ozzie’s feet and pushed him into the net. The officials immediately waived the goal off and I’m sure Osgood breathed a huge sigh of relief. That’d be a pretty miserable way to give up a game-tying goal. Instead the Wings came away with a hard-fought 3-2 win and have now won 5 straight games. They now have 19 points which moves them atop the NHL in total points, although the Senators have two games in hand. Henrik Zetterberg Jiri Hudler Mikael Samuelsson Red Wings Tomas Holmstrom Vancouver Canucks
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