Tonight the Red Wings were in Ohio to square off against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Jimmy Howard was in net for the Wings and Steve Mason was in for the Blue Jackets. The Red Wings claimed Drew Miller off waivers today from Tampa Bay. He was picked up to add some depth in order to compensate somewhat for the injuries.
The Red Wings wasted no time getting her going in this one. Mickey Redmond had just finished saying how important it was for the Wings to score first. It was just passed the one minute mark of the first period. The Jackets tried to clear the zone but it hit Zetterberg. He took a shot that ended up in Cleary’s skates right in front of the crease. Cleary got control of the puck and put it behind Mason giving the Wings the early one to nothing lead.
Just a few minutes later Datsyuk took a shot and Mason misplayed it. It went off his glove and into the net for the Wings second goal.
Brad May danced with Jared Boll at center ice. It wasn’t much of a fight since May fanned on his first punch and fell down. Boll landed a few after May fell and May ended up cut. He left the ice for repairs and they each got five minutes of penalty time.
A few minutes later the Jackets turned the puck over in their own end again. It came to Lebda at the point and he fired it. Draper redirected it in front of Mason and suddenly it was three to nothing Detroit. That was it for Mason as he was replaced by Garon.
Not much later Detroit went on the power play. Just 19 second into it Kronwall fired from the blue line. Bertuzzi was in front of the net screening Garon. He couldn’t see the puck well enough and it went into the net. That was the fourth goal of the night for the Red Wings and there was still more than seven minutes left in the first period.
When the second period started the Red Wings were up four to nothing and Mason had been put back in net for the Blue Jackets.
It was more than halfway through the second period when Columbus finally got on the board. Umberger sent the puck from the corner to the front of the net. It went all the way through the crease to Nash who tapped it in. Pahlsson’s stick was right behind Nash’s so if Nash hadn’t scored Pahlsson would have. That made it four to one.
Then Datsyuk made a brilliant backhand pass that found Bertuzzi flying up the slot. He double clutched and fired it beating Mason and making it five to one Wings. It was great to see Bertuzzi score a goal. He’s been playing so well but nothing seems to go in for him no matter how wide open the net. Hopefully, this will help cure the snake bite.
Just a few second later Zetterberg passed it Leino and he kicked it ahead to his stick. Then he made a nice move and shot the puck beating Mason for the Red Wings’ sixth goal. Every goal scored to that point in the game was the third goal of the season for the player scoring it. To quote Mickey Redmond, “That’s pretty something.”
In the third period Kronwall let one go from the top of the circle with Cleary screening in front. I don’t think Mason ever saw it. It went in just under the crossbar and down. That made it seven to one.
Then Abdelkader scored after entering the zone with Holmstrom in a two on one. He took it all the way and scored with a shot through the five hole. At this point the rest of the game was just a formality.
Abdelkader scored again near the end of the game on an end to end rush.
That was the last goal of the game. The Red Wings won nine to one. It was one of those nights for the Blue Jackets. The Red Wings looked really great in this game but the Blue Jackets didn’t seem to be there so it wasn’t a very good benchmark. It’s definitely a good game for the Wings to build upon. It should be a good confidence builder for a lot of players.
This 9-1 win brings us to:
8-5-3
19 points
Tags: Blue Jackets, Columbus, Detroit, NHL, Red Wings, Red Wings Blog