Killing in the Name of
Meech backchecks to throw off a Calgary scoring chance
Canadian Press Photo: Jeff McIntosh
The Detroit Red Wings completed a 3-game sweep of their trip through British Columbia and Alberta tonight with a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames. Detroit’s goaltending, PK unit, and success in the faceoff circle played a big role in the win but more on that later.
Calgary scored the first goal at the 5:28 mark of the first period. The Flames played the puck off the halfboards to gain the offensive zone. Nick Lidstrom was in perfect position to clear the puck but it took a bit of a funky bounce and hopped over his stick and right onto the tape of Jarome Iginla’s stick. With that fortuitous bounce Calgary had a 2-on-1 with Brian Rafalski being the lone Red Wing in front of Chris Osgood. Iginla made a perfect pass to Alex Tanguay who quickly buried the puck top shelf.
Detroit however, would rebound to score four unanswered goals. Dion Phaneuf would be sent to the penalty box for interference at the 7:48 mark of the opening period and Detroit’s power play took advantage of the man advantage. The second unit struck as Jiri Hudler dug the puck out of a scrum near the halfboards. He passed the puck back to Mikael Samuelsson who was manning the point. Sammy quickly sent the puck to Brett Lebda at the other point. Lebda made a nice cross-ice pass to Hudler who moved from the boards towards the net. Huds plunked the shot off Mikka Kiprusoff’s pad before the puck found the back of the net to tie the score.
The leading scorer in the NHL would give the Wings the lead later in the period. Pavel Datsyuk carried the puck along the boards at the 10:40 mark. He found Henrik Zetterberg, who was near the left faceoff circle. Z took the pass and scored his league leading 11th goal this season to stake Detroit to a 2-1 lead.
Pavel Datsyuk almost tallied his second helper of the opening period while playing on the PK after Kirk Maltby was sent off for hooking. Pavs was paired with Valtteri Filppula and Datsyuk took the puck to the net to Kipper’s right before making a nice cross-crease pass to Fil. The pass was to Filppula’s backhand and he had trouble pulling the trigger. But it was a high quality chance to pot a short-handed goal. The period would end with the Wings holding a one-goal lead.
The checking line got in on the action
Canadian Press Photo: Jeff McIntosh
Detroit outshot Calgary 11-5 in the first period, but it was fairly even in terms of each team carrying play. That was not the case during the second period, even though the Flames outshot Detroit 10-8. The Red Wings in fact began to take control of the game during the middle stanza. Detroit wasn’t on the power play when Dan Cleary scored a goal to put the Wings up 3-1 but you would think they were. Nick Lidstrom put a shot on net from the point that Kiprusoff stopped. But he couldn’t control the rebound. Dan Cleary beat the defenseman to the loose rebound and skated around Kipper to bury the puck into the open net.
For the rest of the period the Wings were pretty efficient about clearing the zone and killing the two penalties they took after Cleary’s goal. The Flames would have seven power play opportunities over the course of the game but did not convert any of them into goals. For the most part Detroit was effective in killing the penalties without surrendering any good scoring chances. The few times they did allow some high-quality scoring chances Chris Osgood was up to the task and held Calgary off the scoreboard. He was named the game’s #1 star as he stopped .963 percent of the shots he faced.
Detroit’s success in the faceoff dot also played a key role in killing all those penalties. Overall the Wings won 62% of the faceoffs. That number actually improved when Detroit was short-handed. While on the PK the Wings won 67% of the faceoffs. That makes a big difference when it comes to killing off penalties.
While the Wings dominated play in the second period, there was a sense that the first team that scored in the third would seize momentum. The Flames came out of the locker room and carried play early on, trying to draw within one goal of Detroit. When Kris Draper was sent to the box for tripping at the 3:53 mark of the period Calgary tried to make the most of the opportunity. They outshot Detroit 6-0 at the start of the period and they were dangerous. Andreas Lilja was sent off for holding at the 8:44 mark and Chris Osgood had to make an impressive save on Jarome Iginla who was in tight and tried to put a rebound past the Red Wings netminder.
The Wings would weather the storm and would salt the game away when Kristian Huselius was penalized for hooking at the 12:43 mark. The top power play unit would put the game away as Pavel Datsyuk’s shot from the point would create a rebound that Henrik Zetterberg buried for his 12th goal.
With the win Detroit is now 7 points in front of Minnesota for the best point total in the West and 3 points in front of Ottawa for the best point total in the NHL. The Wings have scored 49 goals, which ties them with Carolina for the league lead. They’ve allowed 31 goals, which is a bit high. But as far as recent trends go they have given up an average of 1.57 goals per game since the penalty-fest game against Anaheim on October 15. Detroit will now play nine straight games against Central Division opponents. The Central has gotten off to a great start this season so these games could go along way towards determining the pecking order of the division.
Calgary Flames Dan Cleary Henrik Zetterberg Jiri Hudler Red Wings1 Comment(s)
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was at the game last night and with the exception of 3rd the wings dominated badly, the flames looked like a beer league team for the first 40 minutes. The flames pp was horrible. In the 3rd the wings were on their heals a lot but odgood made some brilliant saves and had a little luck (hasek who?)
If the wings can keep this pace up against the central they could clinch a playoff spot by december