Detroit had the second of back to back games tonight. After pummeling the Blue Jackets nine to one last night, the Red Wings hosted the Canucks tonight. Maltby and Osgood were both having flu symptoms. Jimmy Howard started in net for the Wings for the second night in a row because Osgood was sick. Luongo was the goalie for the Canucks. Howard played very well last night so it’ll be a good test to see how he feels on the second night in a row. Drew Miller was in for the first time as a Red Wings tonight after being picked up off waivers from Tampa.
Early on in the game Brad May fought with Rick Rypien. It was a great fight. No dancing around, they were both throwing them fast and furious. May took the early lead in the fight but Rypien came back strong and May ended up with the jersey up trying to protect his face. He was still recovering from the eye injury and he was also cut in a fight last night. It was a pretty exciting fight though; one of the better ones for the Red Wings so far this year (which isn’t really saying much, I know).
Late in the first period Detroit was on the power play. Zetterberg had the puck in the corner with Holmstrom in front of the net. He sent the puck towards the net and Holmstrom redirected it in. It went in and out so quickly that Holmstrom put it in one more time just to be sure, but it was in the first time. It was one to nothing Red Wings.
In the second period Abdelkader was called for high-sticking. It was unintentional but that’s life. On the power play Bieksa shot from the point. The Wings were in good position defensively but the puck hit Mason Raymond’s skate and ricocheted into the net to tie the game at one each.
About halfway through the second period Stuart was called for high-sticking. As it turns out it was Samuelsson’s stick that came up and hit his own player. In fact, Stuart actually caught part of the stick up high himself. This is a frustrating call but it gets worse. The referee who was standing by the goal looking right at the play saw exactly what happened. He didn’t call anything. The referee from center ice is the one who called it. I understand the center ice ref making a call if he somehow has a better view than the other ref but in this case he obviously didn’t since he GUESSED at what happened. Mickey Redmond made an excellent point that the ref with the better view should be able to go talk to the other ref, tell him what happened and wave off the penalty. This doesn’t seem to happen though. I challenge Commissioner Bettman and the head of officials, Terry Gregson to encourage the closer ref to take action if he knows that the other ref has made the wrong call.
After two periods the score was still tied at one. Vancouver was badly out-shooting the Wings but they also had four power plays to the Red Wings one so it wasn’t as bad as it looked on paper.
In the third period Stuart made a great pass from his own end to hit Zetterberg in stride. Zetterberg drove towards the net and backhanded a shot that beat Luongo on the short side up high were there was almost no room whatsoever. It was a precision shot and a thing of beauty. That made it two to one Wings.
The Wings held that lead until near the end of the game when the Canucks pulled their goalie. Jimmy Howard played the puck to Kronwall who cleared it up the ice off the glass. The puck hit a stanchion, took a funny bounce and rolled into Vancouver’s empty net. That was Jimmy Howard’s first career assist.
So the Red Wings won what turned out to be a really gritty game. Vancouver played well but Jimmy Howard was fantastic and the Red Wings scored enough to stay in control. Zetterberg and Stuart both had great games as well.
This 1-3 win brings us to:
9-5-3
21 points
Tags: Canucks, Detroit, NHL, Red Wings, Red Wings Blog, Vancouver