The Wings won a bit of a wild one last night, 4-3 at Madison Square Gardens. It was their first game against the Rangers since Brendan Shanahan left Detroit for New York, and for two periods, it looked like Shanny and the Blueshirts were going to carry the game to its finish and perhaps resurrect their season. In the end, however, they couldn’t hold off the Wings, who were beneficiaries of some lapses on the part of Henrik Lundqvist, as well as defenseman Blair Betts. The Wings pulled within three points of Nashville, but the Rangers remain five points back of Carolina in 11th place.
Dominik Hasek started for the Wings and was the victim of two sniper goals on the part of Brendan Shanahan and Marcel Hossa. He made a bit of a mental error behind the net and gave up a goal on a turnover seconds after the Shanahan goal, but was stellar the rest of the night. Considering Shanny has one of the best shots in the history of the League, I’m not going to fault Dom for that one. The other two weren’t so forgivable, but because he kept the Wings in the game by making some great saves at key moments before and after the goals, it’s probably best to forget they happened.
The Rangers were dangerous right out of the gates and forced Hasek to make a couple big saves early on. They wasted little time scoring, with Shanahan putting them on the board at 2:18 with a classic goal off the right wing on a 2-on-1. A nice long outlet pass, a tip ahead to Matt Cullen, and they were breaking into the zone with Mathieu Schneider back. Cullen’s pass was a bit ahead of Shanny, but he stretched out, picked it up, and released a quick snap shot to the far side. The puck beat Hasek just inside the left post.
13 seconds later, a failed outlet pass by Chris Chelios resulted in a turnover at center, with Karel Rachunek disrupting the play and Martin Straka sending it back into the Detroit zone along the boards. Michael Nylander, sensing an opportunity, took off down the slot, blowing by Valtteri Filppula and bearing down on Hasek, who had left the net to corral the puck. For whatever reason, Dom mishandled it behind the goalline and Nylander was able to get his stick on it and backhand it into the vacated net while Chelios and Filppula looked on. Sure, it was a bit of a defensive breakdown, but had Dom been able to play it cleanly, there would have been a completely different result.
Not long after the second goal, the Wings got a power play, but did little with it. The Rangers were out-hustling them and basically skating all over them. They did finally get on the board at 7:24 when Henrik Zetterberg took the puck into the New York zone on a rush with Pavel Datsyuk. While Zetterberg took his time after crossing the blueline, Datsyuk headed to the front of the net, where he tipped in Hank’s eventual pass and made it 2-1.
The Wings looked better after the goal, generating some power play-like pressure in the New York zone, but they couldn’t get the puck in the net. They eventually took a couple penalties of their own and gave up a power play goal on the second one, at 14:24. This time it was Marcel Hossa breaking down the right wing, covered by Lidstrom. He took a quick wrist shot from 26 feet out and beat Hasek high to make it 3-1 Rangers. Honestly, it wasn’t such a great goal for Hasek to give up, regardless of the fact that Marcel is a Hossa. It may have glanced off Lidstrom’s outstretched stick, however, so it may have looked worse than it was. Again, he more than made up for it as the game went on.
There was another Detroit power play before the period ended, but, again, they couldn’t do much with it. Play was mostly even, though the Wings had more trouble getting anything going than the Rangers did. At this point, it was hard to believe New York was having any troubles this season, as they were clicking on nearly every pass and frequently generating chances. A combination of Dom’s goaltending and frantic defense kept the score as it stood, however.
The Rangers’ sharpness continued in the second period as well. The Wings had another power play early on, and though it wasn’t a bad effort, they couldn’t capitalize. Subsequent play was of the up-and-down variety, with the Rangers holding the advantage due to the Wings’ seeming inability to match New York’s passing. Things began to look up during a penalty kill beginning at 9:50, though. The Wings controlled the puck for most of the New York power play, rather than the other way around, and after they’d killed it off, they began to control the play more.
Still, the Rangers were playing good defense (how many years have you been able to say that of them lately?) and the Wings had trouble getting sustained pressure. They hit the post around the 13:00 mark and Johan Franzen showed some surprising offensive skill with a great personal rush a couple minutes later. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Tomas Holmstrom had a great shift beginning around 18:00, but couldn’t put the puck in the net.
Right at the end of the period, the Rangers almost went up by three, but Hasek came up huge on a 2-on-1. The puck carrier, Matt Cullen, deked around Nick Lidstrom and centered the puck to Jed Ortmeyer, who tried to go high on Hasek, but he was denied with about 3 seconds remaining.
Play from the start of the third period was coast-to-coast, with neither team really controlling it. On one Detroit chance, former Red Wings player Aaron Ward was hit on the inside of the knee with a slapshot and he had to be helped off the ice. He returned soon after that, though, and finished the game.
The Wings got within one at 2:31, but only just, as Jiri Hudler capitalized on a gaffe on Lundqvist’s part. Lundqvist turned the puck over behind the net when Filppula rushed him and it ended up on Hudler’s stick. He whipped around and tried to get the puck in the net before Lundqvist got back and was almost successful, but somehow it stayed out. He kept swinging at it, though, as he fell to his knees and finally knocked it in with a Ranger draped all over his back.
Following the goal, the Wings were sharper, as they usually are. They had a couple great shifts and rode the rush for a while before fading a little toward mid-period. The Rangers continued to click on offense, though, and Hasek had to be sharp.
The Wings caught a break at 10:54 when Dan Cleary threw the puck at the net from the right point and suddenly it was in the net. Apparently, Robert Lang got his stick on it out front, knocking it in off the rebound, but it looked to me like it just beat Lundqvist 5-hole on the initial shot by Cleary. Either way, the game was tied at 4.
At 12:07, Ward took a hooking penalty and the Wings went back on the power play. It took them just 29 seconds to score and take the lead. With Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Holmstrom in a crowd behind the goalline, Blair Betts got the puck and turned around to clear it. He fanned on it when Zetterberg poked at the puck with his stick, however, and Hank was able to jump on it before Betts could recover. He ripped a shot inside the right post, beating Lundqvist for the Wings’ third straight goal.
After the goal, Versus zoomed in on Zetterberg on the bench where his wrist was getting checked out, probably a result of the slash he received from Betts as he scored the goal. Hopefully the situation is not worsening.
As the period wound down, the Wings settled into a defensive posture and the Rangers attempted a comeback. Dominik Hasek made a great glove save at 15:11 mark, though you don’t get a real sense of how good it was on that replay. The Rangers pulled Lundqvist with about a minute left, but couldn’t get anything going and the game ended with the Wings winning 4-3.
This game wasn’t like other Wings comebacks this season, as they didn’t play that badly for most of it. I think it was more a matter of the Rangers playing so well than anything else. It wasn’t that the Wings suddenly turned it on in the third period because they actually played a fairly complete game, I think. They just had a little trouble handling the Rangers and their precision passing, but caught breaks with Lundqvist’s mental errors. Hopefully the loss won’t send New York into a worse tailspin, because they showed a lot of skill last night and I’d love to see them make the playoffs.
I feel like a bit of a lazy bum for not getting this published until now, but I wanted to see the replays again before making any judgements on certain plays and had to wait until the videos were available. Dave of Gorilla Crouch and Steph of No Pun Intended had their recaps out last night. Check ‘em out.
Next up: vs. Phoenix tomorrow night at 7:30 ET.