Wings v. Avalanche in review 10/24/09

Ok, there's good news and bad news here. The good news: the Wings played what is probably their most complete game of the season. The bad news: they lost...again. The Wings outshot the Avs 49-23. Another nice stat is that the Wings outshot the Avs in every period, indicative of them outplaying the Avs for a full sixty minutes. Credit goes to Anderson in goal for Colorado, because allowing one goal on 49 shots is truly impressive.

Detroit goal (1-0) 3:09 2nd period; Draper from Cleary & Ericsson:
Nice goal here. Draper pulls a Holmstrom and camps out in front of the net. Cleary puts one on net and Anderson can't scoop up the rebound. Draper is right in front and whacks at the puck until it finds the back of the net. This sequence started on a failed clear attempt from behind the Colorado net that was intercepted by Detroit. Nice to see this one go Detroit's way after a similar play in Phoenix in which the Wings were unable to clear and Phoenix took advantage, tying the game that would eventually end in an OT loss.

Colorado goal (1-1) 14:26 2nd period; Galiardi from Stewart:
Well, the luck ran out pretty quick. A failed clear attempt by Rafalski hits Ericsson and falls to the ice. No Detroit player is able to get to the puck, and the Avs player passes to a wide open teammate in front of the net. One deke later, and the puck goes right between Howard's legs.

Colorado goal (2-1) 9:20 3rd period; Stewart from Galiardi & Cumiskey:
This one's embarrassing. Stewart is entering the offensive zone with speed, and he unleashes a simple wrister from near the top of the right circle. He beats Howard, who outstretches his blocker but can't slide cross-crease fast enough. He's about four inches too far to his left, and gets beat far side.

Colorado goal (3-1) 19:00 3rd period; Stastny from Hannan & O'Reilly:
Wings lose the faceoff, Stastny gets a nice loooong pass right on his stick, he shoots from the neutral zone and scores. Oh yeah, this one was an empty netter.

Well, the story of this game was really Anderson's stellar goaltending. The positive I take from this is that the Wings made fewer mistakes and had some great scoring chances. I truly believe that things will start clicking soon. After all, a little puck luck can go a long way.