On the Wings

It wasn’t the best win ever, but the Wings got it done last night, beating the Calgary Flames 3-2 at the Joe. Neither team was overly impressive, with the Wings sloppy, and the Flames primarily playing defensively. Dominik Hasek started for the Wings and was relatively solid, while Miikka Kiprusoff looked pretty human for the Flames. Kyle Quincey made his 2006-2007 NHL debut and looked pretty good, getting involved in the offense and not standing out in a bad way on defense.

To start the game, Mike Babcock went with Mikael Samuelsson, Henrik Zetterberg, and Kris Draper, and Danny Markov with Nick Lidstrom on the blue line - the same group, with Samuelsson replacing Valtteri Filppula, that began last game. The first couple minutes of the game were momentarily obscured by a FSN snafu that left the screen frozen and pixelated.

At 2:14, Kyle Quincey carried the puck into the Flames zone and took a shot that blew by Kiprusoff and into the net. The light went off, the horn sounded, and the fans cheered but the “goal” was waived off because the play had been called off-sides. The puck probably only got into the net because Kiprusoff had eased up, knowing a whistle was coming. Not that goalies are always right - remember Chris Osgood in Game 2 of the 1998 Finals with Peter Bondra chasing the puck to the corner? I do. That game turned out alright, though. Anyway, moving on.

Both teams started out pretty slowly, with the Wings controlling play, if anyone was. Mostly, though, their possesions were along the boards and didn’t result in much on net. Their first goal resulted from such play. With the Wings grinding the puck out in the Flames end, Jeff Friesen picked it up and attempted to clear it. He ended up sending it directly to Chris Chelios, who sent it across to Johan Franzen between the circles on the left side. Franzen let loose a blast that beat Kiprusoff on the stick side, and put his team up 1-0 at 4:29. Friesen was angry enough with himself to break his stick.

1:20 or so later, the Flames took their first penalty of the night, a holding call on Daymond Langkow. The Wings wasted little time with the power play, scoring just six seconds into it when Tomas Holmstrom knocked the puck in off a strange play. Jason Williams, unfortunatly on the point, sent the puck at the net and it ended up hitting the post to Kiprusoff’s right. It bounced out front and off some feet before Homer picked it up and put it in the net. 2-0 Wings at 5:48.

The Flames followed up the Wings’ second goal with a flurry around Hasek, but were unable to score. The Flames went back on the penalty kill at 7:10 but the Wings put up a pretty weak performance and the penatly was easily killed off. Calgary had given up 2 goals on 5 shots to this point and had only managed 1 shot themselves.

The Wings got a penalty of their own at 11:03, when Johan Franzen went off for tripping. The Flames set up and cycled the puck but it was soon cleared. Back in the zone, Danny Markov laid out a big hit down low but the puck was freed up for another Calgary player to pick up and put on net. Dom made the save, however, and play continued. Dion Phaneuf got his team on the board at 12:29 with a blast from the point that snuck through a gap in traffic, and rang off the post to Hasek’s right before going into the net. Great shot by the young defenseman and not so great penalty killing by the Wings, who gave him far too much space to take it. 2-1 Wings.

By this point, the Wings’ sloppiness in passing was very apparent, and the fact that Hasek seemed to feel an irresistable urge to wander from the net at the worst times didn’t make for much of a feeling of security. The Flames had a strong pressure shift around the 13:00 mark, during which Hasek lost his stick. He went out to get it when the Wings only marginally had control of the puck in the opposite corner and with the team passing the way it was, that probably wasn’t the smartest idea.

Darren McCarty had his first shift of the game just after 13 minutes into the first. I don’t know about the rest of Hockeytown, but that made me sad.

The Wings generated some pressure of their own around the 14:00 mark, with Markov setting up Samuelsson in the slot. Sammy sent the puck wide, however, so it was a bit of a wasted effort by those two together with Zetterberg and Draper.

Play began to pick up a bit toward the end of the period, with the Wings moving the puck quickly and the Flames skating hard, putting pressure on. The fact that they were moving the puck quickly, though, didn’t mean the Wings were sharp, especially in their own end. They had a few sloppy plays, most notably a miscue between Chelios and Quincey that resulted in a Calgary chance. Fortunately, nothing came of it, though.

The second period began with the Flames hustling, but the Wings got the biggest chance when Cleary (I believe) found himself wide open in the slot with the puck. He deked himself out of real estate, however, as the Calgary defense converged and Kiprusoff came out, and couldn’t score.

The teams traded scattered chances for a while as the Wings continued to pass sloppily in their own end and the Flames continued to make only weak attempts at making good use of intercepted pucks.

Darren McCarty took an interference penalty at 13:07 but it made little difference in the excitement level, as the Wings totally squandered the chance to go up by two. Except for once opportunity on a flurry out front involving Williams, Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, the Wings got little done. The Flames had a great shorthanded chance but Matthew Lombardi fanned on the puck in the slot.

The Wings were generally controlling the play and were getting the beginnings of some good chances, but they were just unable to finish. A good example of this was Datsyuk, who looked slow all night (hurt, maybe?). He had a nice play late in the period where he deked Phaneuf out but sent the puck wide of the net when he took the shot. They seemed to be merely going through the motions offensively most of the period while the Flames sat back with their fast defense and kept things close. It wasn’t that Calgary was playing great because they weren’t. They were just good enough at shutting down the Wings to make things boring.

The third period began with a good shift by the Wings, but that was it - they couldn’t score. At 2:16, play was stopped because Andrew Ference saw fit to apply his stick to Jiri Hudler’s face in a play on the puck. Hudler fell to the ice, but somehow the refs missed it and no penalty was called.

At 2:39, Kristian Huselius was called for tripping Kronwall. It was a bit of a bogus call because Nik lost an edge, but Huselius’ stick hit Kronwall’s face so it could have been a penalty anyway. On the power play, Holmstrom had a nice chance from Zetterberg and Datsyuk but he sent it wide of the net. And that was basically it because the Wings took a dumb bench minor penalty at 3:39 (they lead the league with 7 - disgusting). Datsyuk was slow getting back to the bench and the new player (Lang, I believe) played the puck too early.

There was a 50 second period of 4-on-4 hockey where the Flames set up in the Wings end but another FSN snafu obscured about 30 seconds and by the time they got back, Calgary was about to start their power play. Zetterberg had a shorthanded chance but chose to pass rather than shoot and the puck was interecepted by Robyn Regehr on its way to Franzen. Hank, you aren’t going to get yourself going by dishing the puck. You need to shoot and get some goals. The Wings killed off the penalty without much trouble.

Daniel Cleary, having a great game behind the scenes, took the offensive spotlight for a moment when he brought the puck down the right wing and almost around the Calgary defense. The Flames defenseman had to collapse to the net and knock over his own goaltender in order to prevent Cleary from getting off a shot. Alex Tanguay didn’t like seeing Cleary play so well, apparently, as he nailed Dan at center just as the latter was finishing up a great shift.

As the period neared the halfway mark, the Flames picked up their play and began to take it to the Wings. They had a nice pressure shift in the Wings’ end, cycling the puck well, and getting off a shot, but Dom made the save. There was a minor scuffle after the play, however, with McCarty dishing out a facewash or two to some of his old teammates.

At 10:07, both McCarty and Kirk Maltby got roughing penalties for a play in which I’d have thought only Darren should have been penalized. He held Maltby to the boards long after the puck had moved on but wasn’t called for holding. When released, Maltby took a single swipe at Mac and that’s when the ref blew the whistle on them both. Weird. Anyway, with the teams skating four a side, Brett Lebda put the Wings up by two on a surprise goal at 11:24. He carried the puck up ice and into the Flames zone down the right wing, cutting across to the top of the right circle with a defenseman in front of him. Using the defenseman as a shield, he sent the puck through his legs and somehow beat Kiprusoff low stick-side. Lebda didn’t appear to be looking at the net at all and said after the game that he had just closed his eyes and taken the shot. 3-1 Wings.

With four seconds remaining in the Maltby/McCarty penalties, Lombardi got a tripping call and the Wings soon went to the power play. The Flames killed it off pretty easily and actually controlled the puck more than the Wings did.

After the penalty expired, the Flames had a shift where their forecheckers caused the Wings defensemen fits. With one Flame playing down low and another at the blueline, the Wings had the hardest time getting the puck out, taking maybe 5 or 6 attempts before it was finally cleared. When they finally did, Jarome Iginla took a hooking penalty and the Wings were back on the power play.

They actually had a couple good chances on this one, the best of which coming when Robert Lang pounced on a loose puck out front. He had all day to shoot and tried to snipe the top right corner but didn’t get it high enough, and Kiprusoff made the save.

The Flames made things interesting by scoring a weird goal at 17:53 to put themselves within one. Andrew Ference took the shot from about as far away from the net as you can be while still in the zone. It hit a player or two and bounced off the ice before going in over Dom’s glove. I don’t blame Hasek for that one, given the number of direction changes. Just a weird goal. 3-2 Wings.

Niklas Kronwall made things even more interesting at 18:18 when he took a dumb hooking penalty. The Flames set up but it was quickly cleared, and Zetterberg took it down the ice for a chance off the left wing. Calgary pulled Kiprusoff with 1:04 remaining and got the puck into the Detroit zone only to have Cleary get control of it and send it down the ice. He was trying for the empty-net goal but it went wide. Cleary followed the puck, however, and got a great chance on the followup. He was tied up on the play, though, and, in a bit of revenge for the hit earlier, drew a penalty from Tanguay.

With the teams playing 4-on-4 hockey, Kiprusoff was back in net. He went to the bench with 8 seconds left, but by then it was too late for it to be any advantage. The Wings won their fourth in a row, 3-2.

Next up: @ Chicago tonight at 8:30 ET.
… Chris Chelios tied Wayne Gretzky for 12th place in games played with 1,487. He’ll be able to pass Wayne if he plays tonight in Chicago. Since it’s a the second of back-to-back games, Cheli would normally probably sit, but since it’s Chicago, his hometown, and the Blackhawks, the team he’s most identified with outside of Detroit, I suspect he’ll play. Especially if Lilja and/or Schneider are unable to play … Quote of the game: “A pat on the back and a kick in the butt are only twelve inches apart.” - Ken Daniels on motivating the apparently laid-back Alex Tanguay … FSN had a short special on Dion Phaneuf during the second intermission. He just doesn’t seem at all like a second-year player. The Flames are lucky to have him. The Wings’ young defensemen are going to be very good, but Phaneuf is already a household name amoung league blueliners … My Wings stars of the game: 1. Brett Lebda (GWG) 2. Daniel Cleary (effort) 3. Johan Franzen (goal) … AP Game Report … Boxscore … Play-by-Play … Shift Chart … THR Game Report … Highlights …

Lines (inc.)

Samuelsson-Zetterberg-Draper
Hudler-Lang-Franzen
Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Williams
Kopecky-Cleary-Maltby

Pairings (inc.)

Lidstrom-Markov
Chelios-Quincey
Lebda-Kronwall