Red Wings Blog

The Red Wings were trying to close out the series against the Ducks tonight in Anaheim. The big lineup change for the Wings was that Rafalski was back in. That’s great news for the Red Wings. Babcock kept Ericsson on the first defensive pair with Lidstrom. That’s quite a testament to how great Ericsson has been since being called up at the start of the playoffs.

The first period ended with no scoring. The Red Wings had a pretty good energy level in the first period but they just couldn’t seem to put much together. I think that was mainly because Anaheim just wasn’t allowing it. They were playing much better defensively than they had in the two previous games. On the flipside the Ducks didn’t really create much offense either. The action was pretty fast back and forth but both teams’ defenses were pretty good about breaking up plays before they developed.

When something did develop Osgood was great. He looked sharp and in good position. At the other end Hiller was just as good.

Rafalski was effective right off the bat. Getting the puck out of the Wings end and into the Ducks end seemed noticeably easier with him out there.

Datsyuk was playing well but he seemed hesitant. It seemed pretty clear to me that he was lacking confidence in his shot. He was thinking pass every time he touched the puck. We’ve seen him go through phases like this before. Eventually, he’ll score a goal, and then he’ll start shooting everything at the net and scoring a ton. It’s bound to happen. Let’s hope it’s soon.

Filppula was called for a penalty late in the first period so the Ducks started the second on the power play.

The Wings killed off the penalty. Then Osgood mishandled the puck behind his net. Ericsson was in front of the net and poked it away saving a goal.

Kronwall sent the puck over the glass and the Wings were shorthanded again. The Ducks scored on the power play. It was a shot from the point that Osgood stopped but Getzlaf was there to knock in the rebound. The Ducks had the lead one to nothing.

As the second period was winding down, Getzlaf shot from the blue line. The puck was deflected at least twice and possibly three times as it hit things on the way to the net. It was Perry that touched it last redirecting it into the net. There was no way for Osgood to predict where that one would go. That gave Anaheim the two to nothing lead with only a few minutes left in the period.

That was it for the second period. Detroit had a two goal deficit to overcome in the third. They just weren’t playing at as high a level as the Ducks. The Ducks were just everywhere. They kept everything to the outside. They rushed every pass and shot the Red Wings made. They were playing a brilliant defensive game.

With about five minutes left in the game Detroit finally started to establish some sustained pressure in the Anaheim zone. Babcock had started changing up the line combinations and it seemed breathe some life into the team. At the three minute mark Helm was taken down and Ebbett went to the box. About a minute into the power play Rafalski kept it in the zone and got it Zetterberg. He passed it to Hudler who passed it to Franzen in front of the net. Franzen tapped it in to pull within a goal of tying the game. It was one to two with just under two and a half minutes to go.

Osgood went to the bench with just over a minute left. The Wings got the puck in deep and there was a whistle when the puck went out of play. Detroit took their timeout to get a breather.

The Ducks stopped the Wings from getting the game-tying goal and forced a game seven Thursday night in Detroit.

After the game ended the Ducks took the opportunity to take cheap shots and sucker punches on Hossa and Datsyuk. Scott Niedermayer elbowed Datsyuk in the face. Datsyuk got up and tried to defend himself and naturally got wailed on by Niedermayer. Getzlaf hooked Hossa at the end of the game so Hossa shoved him a little bit. Getzlaf instantly dropped his gloves and wailed on Hossa. It seemed pretty cheap to me. It looked like the Ducks saw an opportunity to try taking some of our best players out of the next game. Too bad Downey wasn’t in the lineup. This is where you could really use an enforcer. They were taking advantage of guys that aren’t good fighters and trying to take them out of the game. It worked on Kopecky so now they wanted to do the same thing to Hossa and Datsyuk. At least Kopecky was a willing participant.

I certainly wouldn’t complain about a fair fight but both of these were very one-sided. It was ridiculous. If Hossa wanted to fight that would be one thing but to me it looked like Getzlaf was the only one throwing punches. In the other fight it was Niedermayer with his gloves off and his helmet on repeatedly punching Datsyuk in the head. Datsyuk had his helmet off and gloves on. Not cool.

None of that was relevant to why the Wings lost this game though. They were completely out played from beginning to very near the end. Anaheim’s defense was very tight and Detroit was unable to do anything about it like they had done in the past. In part I don’t think the Wings were playing with their best effort but I think it was mostly just the Ducks being the more desperate of the two. Now the series could go either way. One crazy bounce, a bad call, a lucky tip…any little thing can end somebody’s season.

I think the Wings will be at their best on Thursday. The cheap shots at the end of this game will probably just help to fire up the Wings in game seven. Not that they’ll need help since game seven is enough to get anybody fired up.

This 1-2 loss brings this Western Conference Semifinal series to a 3-3 tie.

Today the Ducks were in town to take on the Wings in game five. The goalies were Osgood and Hiller. Lilja, Draper and Rafalski were still out. Kopecky was also out after sustaining an injury in the previous game during a fight with Beauchemin. He may require surgery to repair the damage. Abdelkader was in for Kopecky. Instead of Chelios, Meech was in for this one. Mike Babcock was going with the same top two line combinations that he used in game four.

Detroit started applying the pressure early in this game. Franzen hit the post with a shot inside of the first minute. Abdelkader got off to a fast start as well. He had a couple of big hits early on. Later in the first, Filppula also hit a post. The Wings were doing a great job of setting up plays but were just missing the net. They were clearly dominant at both ends of the ice.

The first period ended without any goals. The Red Wings outshot the Ducks 14 to 3 and obviously were in control of the game. Hiller and his two best friends, the left post and the right post, were the only reason Detroit didn’t have a multiple goal period.

In the second period Detroit broke the scoring drought. Abdelkader got the puck from Franzen near center ice and skated it into Anaheim’s zone. He passed it to Franzen who pulled up and made a move towards the slot. Meanwhile Abdelkader kept going towards the net. Franzen released a shot with Abdelkader in position for the tip. Abdelkader didn’t redirect the puck but he did make it hard for Hiller to get a good look at it.

Just a few seconds later Datsyuk had a breakaway and was all alone against Hiller. He made a nice move but Hiller stayed with him and stopped the shot.

A few more seconds later Zetterberg took a shot that Hiller stopped but it popped straight up in the air. Hudler was crossing in front of the net and batted it out of the air over Hiller’s shoulder and into the net for their second goal. It was just 39 seconds after Franzen’s goal. There was a review to see if it was hit with a high stick but it was a good goal.

Later in the second period Anaheim was on the power play with Kronwall in the penalty box. The puck came back to Ryan Whitney. He moved to Osgood’s left and shot the puck. Stuart was in front of the net trying to block it but he may have just made it tougher for Osgood to see. The puck went by Osgood on the stick side and into the net. He seemed to be frustrated with Stuart after the play. That made it two to one Detroit.

The Wings continued playing very well in the third but Hiller was stopping everything. They had a lot of good scoring chances including one where Kronwall hit the post. That was the third post of the game for the Red Wings.

With about three minutes left in the period Zetterberg ended up on the ice with Helm and Cleary. They had a big pile up in front of the net with everybody whacking at it. It bounced back out and Helm knocked it in. It was Helm’s first playoff goal and it gave Detroit the lead three to one. The Ducks were upset because they felt that Cleary interfered with Hiller. He was definitely in the crease and his skate was behind Hiller’s skate. It was a close call, I can see why they Ducks didn’t like it. After the calls in game three that gave them the win I just don’t have much sympathy for them.

They pulled Hiller with just over a minute and a half to go. Zetterberg bagged the empty net goal again making it four to one. That did it for this game.

The Red Wings dominated at both ends of the ice from start to finish. The Ducks were lucky to be only a goal away from tying for most of the game. It would have been a real tragedy if they had managed to tie it up after being walloped for the entire game

The Red Wings are playing great. Let’s hope they close it out Tuesday night in Anaheim.

This 1-4 win brings this Western Conference Semifinal series to 3-2 Detroit.

The Wings were facing the Ducks tonight for game four in Anaheim. The lineup was the same as the previous games with Hiller and Osgood in the nets. Draper, Rafalski and Lilja were still out for the Wings. After the previous two losses I was pretty worried about this game. Even though Detroit had mostly outplayed the Ducks in the losses I felt like a loss in this game could happen just as easily and would be very hard to overcome. That would mean that the Wings had lost three in a row and then had to come back and win three in a row. I sure didn’t want to see that happen so a win tonight was imperative.

The start of the Red Wings game was not on TV in my local area because the previous game between Vancouver and Chicago was in overtime. I’m not in the local region of either city so Versus stayed with their overtime game and I missed the first eight minutes of the Wings.

I was able to get the Red Wings radio broadcast streaming on my computer but unfortunately the second I got it started I heard the call of the Ducks first goal which came from Corey Perry about 40 seconds into the game. I hoped I was just hearing recorded footage of a previous goal but I knew deep down it was true. Perry was sprung by a long pass from Pronger and ended up all alone against Osgood. That wasn’t the start we wanted for this game but the good thing was that there was still plenty of time to recover.

Luckily, the Blackhawks ended their overtime game relatively quickly and I was able to see the Red Wings game starting at about the 12 minute mark.

From the time I started watching it looked like Detroit was struggling. Anaheim was playing great defense and the Wings seemed to be kind of scattered. Hossa got leveled behind the Anaheim net and Pronger went to the box for interfering with him before the hit. Detroit had a couple of shots on the power play but nothing significant. Even with only four skaters Anaheim seemed to be everywhere.

Then Mike Babcock juggled the lines in this game to shake things up. He had Franzen playing with Hossa and Filppula, and he put Datsyuk and Zetterberg together on a line with Holmstrom.

Shortly after the power play ended Filppula got the puck in the neutral zone. He passed it back into his own zone and then headed for the other end. He got the puck back just as he hit the blue line and skated it up the slot. Filppula dropped it off for Franzen and he snapped it by Hiller and into the net. The game was even again and Hiller was proven to be human.

That goal set a fire under the Wings and they started playing as well as I’ve seen them play all season. This was the sort of energy level that we’ve been seeing quite a bit later in the previous two games. It was good to see it so early in this one.

With just 35 seconds left in the first period Detroit got the puck in deep. Hiller came out behind his net to play it with Hossa pressuring him. Hiller got it safely to Ryan Whitney but when he tried to clear it the puck went to Kronwall at the point. Kronwall launched one with Franzen crossing in front. Franzen tipped it perfectly into the corner of the net to give the Wings the late period lead two to one.

Detroit had some great scoring chances at the start of the second period but didn’t score. Then they were called for too many men on the ice but continued playing aggressively. Zetterberg had a great shorthanded chance and drew a penalty to even things up. The Wings looked great four on four but didn’t score then either.

The new line combinations seemed to be extremely effective for Detroit. They suddenly had no trouble moving the puck in all three zones. All of which had been troublesome in the previous games.

Shortly after the halfway point of the second period, Lidstrom had a shot that was blocked and the Ducks took possession. Getzlaf got the puck into the Red Wings end but then he was double teamed and knocked off the puck. It looked like the play was over but Perry came from out of nowhere, took the puck off of Getzlaf’s stick and snapped one by Osgood. It was over before anybody knew what was happening. That tied the game up at two.

With about four minutes left in the second period Filppula forechecked Whitney and Franzen took the puck. He passed to Hossa in the circle. Hossa released a snapshot that got through Hiller. It was Hossa’s first goal and point in the series. You could see his relief. It was an awesome goal and put the Wings back up by one.

Near the end of the second period Detroit went on the power play. They were cycling the puck very well. Lidstrom had it and went back to Hossa. Hossa had a lot of space and fired one that burned Hiller for his second goal. That made it four to two Detroit with less than a minute in the period. The Red Wings continued to pressure the Ducks until the period ended.

I can’t say enough about the performance of the Wings through two periods. From about the 15 minute mark of the first period they were just on fire. They were having their way with the Ducks and on the rare occasion when the Ducks got organized Osgood was super sharp.

The Red Wings didn’t let up. Early in the third period Maltby sprung Samuelsson. He took the puck into the zone and ripped one over Hiller’s shoulder. It caught the inside corner of the post and went in making it five to two Red Wings. It was a great rising shot that surprised Hiller.

That was the end of the game for Hiller. Our old nemesis J-S Giguere came in to relieve him.

At the halfway point of the third Anaheim went on the power play. The Ducks won the initial face off and started moving the puck well. They got it to Perry down low. He stepped toward the front and passed across to Scott Niedermayer on the other side. He shot quickly into the open side of the net before Osgood could move over. Franzen went down to block it and Osgood dove through the crease but it didn’t hit either of them. That brought the Ducks back to within two.

A few minutes later Kopecky and Beauchemin dropped the gloves for a fight. I didn’t see what started it. By the time the cameras were on them they both had their gloves and helmets off. There was a lot of room between them and the linesman started to move in but decided to let them go. Kopecky never landed a punch and pretty much got wailed on. It’s the thought counts I guess. At that point in the game though I’d say that did a lot more good for the Ducks than it did for the Wings. Kopecky must have been genuinely ticked off about something to fight at that stage because it was probably a mistake to do so. It just helped fire up the Ducks.

Anaheim pulled their goalie with three minutes left. I was pretty surprised that they would do it so early considering the Wings had been stealing the puck all night. The Ducks had possession for a few seconds and then Zetterberg got the puck, dragged a couple of defenders into the zone and shot in the empty-netter.

Obviously, Hossa and Franzen had great games. The entire team was amazing defensively. They were always on the Ducks players and intercepted their passes just about every time they tried to get something going. They looked a lot like the Ducks did early in the first period. Helm also had a fantastic game. I don’t know how many minutes he had but it seemed like a lot. He was everywhere and very very effective.

It was so enjoyable to see the Red Wings play as well as they did. It was a great recovery from a very frustrating couple of games. If they play like that I don’t think there’s a team in the league that can beat them in a seven game series. The new line combinations are absolute magic. Way to go, Wings!

This 6-3 win brings this Western Conference Semifinal series to a 2-2 tie.