What a finish. Definitely not for the faint hearted! From Robert Lang’s shocker to Mathieu Schneider’s booming game-winner, I flinched at every San Jose shot and gift-wrapped scoring chance, and stiffled yells on every decent Wings scoring opportunity. Watching your team on the line like that is not fun, but it feels so good afterwards.
Still, there are a lot of things they need to work on. The comeback was spectacular, but overall, their game was not. Hopefully tonight will get them on the right track as the series becomes a best-of-three.
More tomorrow when I can. I’m moving back home now that the semester is over, so I have to do a lot of cleaning before checking out early in the afternoon. I’ll try to get something out before I drive home because after that I’ll be tied up for probably the rest of the day.
Agreed. Very heart pounding game.
Holmstrom’s goal was AMAZING. The man’s hand-eye coordination is spectacular. For him to bat the puck out of the air like that was fun. And to think that he missed the last three games with an eye injury makes it even more astonishing.
The Lang goal reminded me of the Lidstrom goal from the blue line against Vancouver 5 years ago. That goal, like I’m hoping this one will, turned the series around and the Wings went on to win the Cup.
On a fun note, tonight was my first night ever to watch a game in HD at my home. I’ve finally caught up with the rest of the world. The technology is great and I’m glad I’m there with most of you.
as the third was winding down, i’m making a mental list of the things that went wrong in this series for the wings: poor power play, sloppy turnovers, inconsistent play, and taking unbelievably stupid penalties at really bad times (though there was certainly some poor officiating as well, like when zata was tripped last night). oh, and the post hasn’t helped us much either.
then lang scored, and i kinda changed my mind on everything.
well, not really, but i did think that a) lang gets kind of a bum rap - his only two goals these playoffs were both huge b) as soon as OT started, i knew we won. the sharks looked flat, the tank was SILENT, and the wings were working the pressure great.
when that power play started, i said out loud, “mat, now would be a great time to NOT hit the post”. ahhh…i was happy for him.
ps, nathan: “I’m glad I’m there with most of you”? i thought we were mostly broke college kids reading this blog. i don’t know how many of us have HD (though i wish…).
“On a fun note, tonight was my first night ever to watch a game in HD at my home. I’ve finally caught up with the rest of the world.”
It’s fantastic, isn’t it? I love when the games are in HD.
“when that power play started, i said out loud, “mat, now would be a great time to NOT hit the post”. ahhh…i was happy for him. ;)”
well, he DID hit the post…
Need to know… what’s the status on Homer? He went off there during the game..
I’m thrilled that Lang scored, but I’m still not happy with his overall level of play. He’s been so lackluster all season. But hey, I’ll take a win right now for sure. I had to watch most of the game hiding behind my pillow. It was so nervewracking!
paul -
oh yeah, he did…well, he’s getting his shots more on goal now, 1/2 inch at a time.
On Homer -
I found this article (http://feed.insnews.org/v-cgi/feeds.cgi?feedid=144&story_id=2901391) and Homer is interviewed in it, but him leaving in third never came up. For now, I’m going to assume that he’s ok and just needed some small attention.
“The guys put the puck on net and I have something to work on,” Holmstrom said. “That’s my area. That’s where I score my goals from. I needed that, too.”
Pretty good article, makes it seem like the Wings are in Good Spirits. I just hope that this doesn’t mean they’re lazy.
Homer did play in OT, though not the last 5 minutes. I haven’t heard anything about him being hurt last night though, so my guess would be that he’s ok.
Although Detroit didn’t play their best, they played hard in the last minute…I guess that’s all that really counted. Now, if they were to play like that all game long, the series wouldn’t be tied right now and we’d be waiting for the Ducks and Canucks to finish up (by the way, who do you think will win that one? I’m going to say the Ducks…)
I was so happy to see Lang pull through. I thought it was a relatively weak shot when I saw the replay, but wow, when I saw him score I jumped up and everyone in the room just started shouting. It was funny because a lot of them weren’t even hockey fans. It was great.
And when Schneider buried the final goal…yeah. It was awesome.
Now we’ll see if the Wings can carry that momentum to Games 5 and 6. There shouldn’t be a Game 7. I feel like they should have the series wrapped up, and if they don’t give 110%, the Sharks will take advantage of it.
By the way, on a more minor note, where are all the Troll’s now?
I was railing on Lang, and especially Schneider, ALL NIGHT last night. Every time Schneider touched the puck it seemed, he f*&@ed up. And Lang was Lang. Did that ever come back to bite me in the ass.
This series hasn’t quite lived up to the bill hockey-wise, but it hasn’t been short on exciting moments.
Dom- For the love of God have you learned nothing? DON’T HANDLE THE PUCK.
To bad for me, Cleary or Clowe never got any points..lol
Good job by the Wings, they can take this series if the want it bad enough.
dgwriting.blogspot.com
For you guys looking for an update on Homer, I think he cramped up. Somebody suggested that last night, he was flexing his leg as he left, he went to the locker room (instead of just taking off his skate at the bench), and Chelios said in an interview that Homer had a “physical problem” late in the game. Makes sense after not playing for a while.
Holmstrom went off because his skate had broken, according to an article at TSN.ca.