The Wings continued their climb up the Western Conference standings with a win on Sunday night. This game could have ended at a normal time for a 7pm start, but instead got pushed back by a 27 minute power outage.
Two things:
1) Apparently the Wings aren't great performers after a long layoff, because they were sloppy after the power was restored.
2) Really, Honda Center? This is the second time in a week that the power has gone off there. No big deal. There's smog, crazy bad traffic and it seems like their electrical grid sucks. But hey, it's often sunny so there's that.
1st Period:
Anaheim 0 Detroit 1; 1:26- Zetterberg (4) from Hudler (6) & Smith (2)
Brendan Smith gathers the puck near the blue line and waits for a lane to open between Anaheim's moving defenders. When the lane presents itself he puts a shot on net that Hiller stops.
Hiller gives up a rebound that Jiri Hudler picks up and carries up the boards. Hudler turns and shoots between a pair of Anaheim players, a shot that Hiller again stops.
Hiller gives up another rebound. An Anaheim players gets to the puck first, but as he goes to make a hard clear off the boards Zetterberg sweeps at the puck and steals it. Zetterberg's momentum is carrying him towards the slot, while the sweep causes the Duck to fall down.
Hiller is trying to push across laterally with his pads but can't quite get square to Z before he shoots off the backhand. The far side post is open, and Zetterberg perfectly places a shot in the top corner to end his scoring drought
.
2nd Period:
Anaheim 0 Detroit 2; 00:14- Franzen (10) from Datsyuk (10)
Anaheim wins the faceoff and tries to get their breakout started. Datsyuk reads the pass perfectly and jumps it. If this took place on grass people would be all like "shades of Charles Woodson" and whatever.
Datsyuk puts a pass through the Anaheim defender for Franzen. Check out how many Anaheim defenders are in the red box above. Yep, this could get interesting.
Franzen has a breakaway here. The Mule picks up the puck in the slot, and while there may have been time for a quick deke he chooses not to, instead putting a smooth wrist shot past Hiller.
Anaheim 0 Detroit 3; 7:10- Stuart (2) from Franzen (10) & Datsyuk (11)
Detroit's trying to gain offensive zone entry here. Two Anaheim backcheckers get caught bunched up, opening up a passing lane. Franzen is standing at the blue line, waiting for the pass.
Anaheim rolls the dice here and has all 5 players overloading one side of the ice. If Franzen can make a smart pass they're in trouble. Stuart is jumping into the play here and is about to be all alone on the right side of the ice.
Franzen executes a great pass and Stuart carries in. Bertuzzi gets in the way of an Anaheim player just long enough to leave Stuart with the shooting lane he wants. That's some real #TuzziSwag. Stuart releases, Bert jumps out of the way, and Hiller lets in another goal.
Anaheim 1 Detroit 3; 11:24- Koivu from Fowler & Cogliano
The play starts in the Detroit offensive zone, where a slapshot that misses the net rolls around the boards and is picked up by Anaheim. The Ducks have a 3-on-2 break with Bertuzzi hauling butt to get involved as a backchecker.
Cogliano has the puck at first and passes to Fowler, then falls down. Two of the three Wings chase the puck instead of sticking to their coverages, leaving Koivu alone to be guarded by a too-deep Ericsson on the left side.
Congrats Anaheim, you have a defenseman that isn't an idiot. Fowler notices that two Wings have keyed on him and makes the pass to Koivu. Ericsson can't do much aside from extending the stick, and Koivu scores.
Anaheim 2 Detroit 3; 16:21- PPG Selanne from Perry & Getzlaf
We'll pick this up part way through an Anaheim powerplay. Detroit is in their diamond formation. Lidstrom should have the netfront locked up, though he's a little high. There's a Duck camped out in front of the net to screen Howard.
Getzlaf is in the process of shooting in the first screencap, and at this point the shot as gotten through and there's a rebound in front. Smith collapses and takes away the passing lane to....yeah, I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe he thinks Getzlaf is going to try to follow up on the shot. I don't know, I didn't go to Wisconsin. Perry gets the rebound and backhands a beautiful no-look pass to Selanne, who taps it in for the goal. Lidstrom should have taken away the pass, but credit goes to Perry as well for making a pass few would/could make.
3rd Period:
Anaheim 2 Detroit 4; 19:12- EN SHG Stuart (3) from Kronwall (4) & Zetterberg (5)
By far the easiest goal I'll break down all year. An Anaheim players tips the puck in the corner and it goes right to Stuart. Stuart chips at it and puts it into the open net using a bank shot. A freaking bank shot!
No comments:
Post a Comment