Archive for the 'Blackhawks' CategoryPage 4 of 4

Wings 2, Chicago 3 (OT)

Published
by
Brian List
on March 31, 2006
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks and Game Reports
. 3 Comments

The Wings were luckily to get a point tonight, losing to Chicago 3-2 in overtime. They seemed to run out of gas during the second and third periods, and being without the services of Mathieu Schneider and Daniel Cleary (still sore from the Scott Walker hit) didn’t help either. Chris Osgood got the start for the Wings, and Mowers filled in for Cleary. Even on the 78th birthday of Gordie Howe and with Vladdy Konstantinov in attendance, the Wings just didn’t show the jump you’d expect from them.

Lucky because Pavel Datsyuk tied the game at 2-2 with Osgood pulled at 46 seconds left in the third. But Chicago’s Patrick Sharp made a great individual play at 1:29 of OT, deiking Lidstrom and Kronwall before beating Osgood near the mouth of the crease. The bright spot of the game was Yzerman getting his 691st goal, now 8th all time (and three away from Messier). Yzerman is now on a 7 game point streak. The Wings were fortunate to get the overtime loss point and make it 108 points, all but locking up the Central Division and lengthening the Western Conference lead on Dallas to 7 points. Khabibulin, previously 0-4 against the Wings this season with a 4.98 GAA, was strong in net on the Wings 41 shots.

The first period opened with 4:23 of play without a whistle, with Osgood making a save on a knuckle-ball shot from Canton, MI native James Wisniewski. The Wings’ penalties from Shanahan at 4:51 (hooking) and Lilja at 7:53 (interference) prevented them from establishing much offense, as they were held without a shot until 10:56. The Lilja call drew the ire of Mickey Redmond, as he explained how Lilja was simply holding his ground in front of Ozzie, and merely bumped shoulders with Calder to draw the interference call.

At 10:56, on the Wings’ first shot on net, Yzerman scored off a great pass from Williams to make it 1-0 Wings. On the play, Williams stole the puck streaking up center, and cut left waiting for the trailing Yzerman, who took the pass in front Khabibulin and tipped it in. It was Yzerman’s 691st career goal, passing Lemieux for sole position of 8th place all time. He is now three goals behind Mark Messier at the next position at 694, with nine regular season games remaining.

The Mowers-Holmstrom-Zetterberg line brought a lot of energy to their play around 4 minutes remaining, the Wings only having taken 5 shots up to this point. At 2;38, Osgood made a save on a Calder point shot, and lost track of the puck as it bounced off his chest above his head. It was a tense few seconds until Ozzie caught sight of the puck and was able to get a glove on it.

At 1:12 remaining Shanny was called for interference, and the Wings got a great chance off a faceoff turnover, leading to a Kris Draper chance on Khabibulin. It hit iron, and a few seconds later Maltby had his own chance on a 2-on-1, but was stoned by Khabibulin. Franzen got a chance before the end of the period too, beating the Chicago defense on the near side to get a quasi-break on Khabibulin. The period ended, and Chicago was luckily to be down by only 1 goal.

During 1st intermission, Jason Williams talked of his excitement for having serious play time in this season’s playoffs, and Vladdy was shown on camera.

The second period started with a penalty kill, the Wings killing it without allowing a shot. A few minutes in, Wisniewski was hit in the mouth by a shot in front of Khabibulin. He fell to the ice, and it was a scary minute as he covered his mouth with his gloves. Being a Canton, MI native, his family was in attendance, so it was fortunate that he was able to continue playing the rest of the game. At 14:08, Zetterberg was called for holding the stick, and while the Wings killed it off, Chicago scored at 16:16 on a backdoor pass from Calder to Cullen. 1-1 tie. Osgood didn’t have a chance on the play. Shots in the period were 17-14 Wings, a pick-up in shots but definitely less energy than the first.

During the 2nd intermission, John Keating interviewed Jiri Fischer, with some clips of it shown. The full interview will be shown pregame Sunday and Monday.

The Wings opened the third sluggish, but got a great power play chance at 6:04. On the play, Datsyuk passed to Holmstrom in front, but Khabibulin was as strong as ever on the stop. It was a funny moment when Mickey Redmond started singing lyrics from his favorite Billy Joel song, “It’s 9 o’clock on a Saturday!” Ken Daniels had to remind him it’s still Friday.

At 14:31, the Blackhawks broke the tie on a goal from Lapointe. On the play, Chicago converted on a 3-on-1 with Lidstrom the only man back, and former-Wing Lapointe notched a goal. 2-1 Chicago. The Wings were desperate with a minute left and the score still 2-1. Osgood was pulled, and the Wings converted on the 6-on-5 advantage with a goal from Datsyuk. On the play, Holmstrom did a great job of getting the puck from behind the net to Shanny, who directed it to Pavel in front. Regulation ended 2-2 with shots 40-32 Detroit.

In overtime, Chicago controlled the pressure and Patrick Sharp made a great individual play on his game-winning goal. On the play, he deiked Lidstrom and Kronwall before beating Osgood near the mouth of the crease. 3-2 Chicago, who definitely deserved the win. The Wings were very lucky just to get their point, and better rest on Saturday before their Sunday matinee versus the Wild. Remember to turn your clocks forward an hour Saturday night! The Wings definitely won’t enjoy that, in addition to their 4 games in 5 nights!

March 12, 2006: Pavel Datsyuk versus Nikolai Khabibulin

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 13, 2006
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks, Links, Nikolai Khabibulin, Pavel Datsyuk and Video
. 0 Comments

Datsyuk scores on a breakway to make it 3-0 Wings at 6:57 of the first period of last night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks (link opens .mpg video)

Link

Wings 5, Hawks 3

Published
by
Kevin List
on March 12, 2006
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks and Game Reports
. 6 Comments

Update (13. Mar 06, 10:52 PM): In anticipation for a high demand for a replay of Pavel Datsyuk’s great goal on Nikolai Khabibulin in Chicago last night, I have found a video of it online and posted it. You can check it out here. (.mpg file) While you’re at it, take another look at the replay of Pavel’s famous goal against Dallas’ Marty Turco on November 12th, 2003 here (.mpg) and this clip of his top ten goals from the 03-04 season here (.wmv). - Matt

Tonight, the Wings were away at Chicago to face the Blackhawks for the second consecutive night. The Hawks home advantage at the United Center did not seem to help their cutting edge at all. The Wings arrived at this match holding 5 regular season victories against the Hawks, including the win just last night. So, it was not surprise that the Wings managed to pull through with another victory. At this game, the Red Wings welcomed Corey Cross as a new defenseman, replacing Jamie Rivers. Cross quickly took command of his position, and put the Wings in the lead within the first thirty seconds of his ice time. The Wings certainly couldn’t have asked for a better performance in his first game. Corey Cross definitely seems to be a valuable addition to the Detroit Red Wings.

Whenever the Wings and Hawks take the ice, they are relentless competitors and play the game right through to the end. However the Hawks, being one of the most penalized team in the NHL, need to be careful to keep their defensive aggression in control. For example, Martin Lapointe made several unnecessary hits in the later part of the game, which led to a couple potentially costly penalties. Another was made by Michal Barinka, as well. If it weren’t for the Hawks strong penalty killing, which is ranked 9th in the NHL, they would have easily taken more shots from the Wings. In total, there were 33 shots made by the Wings, and only 23 made by the Hawks.

1st period
The Hawks had a great opportunity to get ahead early in the 1st period. In the Wings territory, Milan Bartovic set the puck up to Mikael Holmqvist, who tipped it toward the net. However, Osgood saw the shot coming and made the save. At 1:40 into the period, Corey Cross took the ice for the first time as a Wings defenseman. Nine seconds later, at 1:49, Williams set the puck up to Lang, and knocked it to Cross, who tipped it past Khabibulin and into the goal. During the 1st period intermission, Cross comments: “I jumped into the right spot at the right time, and I was able to put it in.”

The Wings strong defense maintained strength, and directed the puck back into the Hawk zone. Datsyuk got the puck and made a clean pass to Shanahan. The back pass was perfectly positioned from behind the net, so Shanahan was able to knock the shot into the goal from the left side. This marks Shanahan’s 2nd goal this season.

These first two Wings goals caused the Hawks to lose their momentum a bit, by the middle of the 1st period. Although they attemped to bring the puck into the Wings zone, poor puck handling, and wide shots accounted for several of their offensive blunders. Eventually, the Wings gained back control of the puck and forced it into the Hawk territory. At 6:57, Datsyuk stormed into the Hawk end, on a breakaway, and fired the puck past Khabibulin, for a goal. Wings now hold a three point lead against the Hawks. Khabibulin had enough and was pulled from the Hawks goal, to be replaced by Craig Anderson. Perhaps Blackhawks coach, Trent Yawney, was cringing at the thought Khabibulin’s expensive $6.75 million/per year contract right about now.

The Hawks finally got the puck into the Wings zone. At about 8:45, Matthew Barnaby got a fair shot on Osgood, but was blocked. During this play, Lilja was caught with a holding penalty and was sent to the box for two minutes. However, the Hawks did nothing with their power play advantage. The Wings continued to pressure Anderson with several set up maneuvers. Chelios and Mowers made a valiant attempt to get a piece of Anderson, however it was captured. The puck was soon sent back to the Wings territory. The Hawks hovered around the net pressuring Osgood, with set-up shots. Lilja tripped Mark Bell up between the legs, however no penalty was called. When knocking the puck back into play, Osgood played the puck from the back and accidentally got it into the stick of Milan Bartovic. He tipped the puck to Holmqvist, who knocked the puck past Osgood’s left side, and into the goal, at 15:00 into the period. The Wings woke up and put more pressure in the Hawk zone. The Hawks defense continued to clear to puck, despite several set ups by Williams and Lang. The period finally came to an end in the Wings territory.

2nd period
The second period began with Hawk possession. At thirty seconds into the period, Barnaby made a slap-shot on Osgood, who covered on an amazing save and froze the play. The Wings brought the puck back around to the Hawk zone, as Yzerman got control of the puck from the faceoff. Draper slid the puck to Datsyuk, who cranked out a hard slap-shot on Anderson. Cross later brought the puck to the left end and tipped it, on a failed shot attempt.

At 2:11, Lilja was penalized for tripping Kyle Calder, and is sent to the box. The Hawks used this power play advantage to make some fair shots on Osgood. In particular, Dustin Byfuglien made a decent slap shot towards Calder, positioned in front of the goal. Calder almost had a chance to tip the puck into the net, but Osgood’s glove got it first. At 5:26, Keith got the puck to Sharp, who made a backhand goal, his 10th goal of the season.

When the going gets tough, Martin Lapointe goes checking and slashing. There simply is no other way he can therapeutically take out his aggression on his former Wings than giving out dirty hits. At around 5:50, Lapointe shoved Cross into the boards from behind, however no penalty was given. Twelve seconds later, he was finally caught on a slashing penalty, when he gave Zetterberg a good whack with his stick. This put the Wings into power play position at 6:02.

The Wings, however, failed to take command of this power play. Cullen won the face-off for the Hawks and sent it to Keath, who made a powerful slap shot on Osgood. The Hawks play their defense well in their zone, as the Wings set up their offense. Shanahan and Lidstrom made fair shots on Anderson, but both were knocked wide of the net. At 8:57, Brandon Bochenski was caught with a holding penalty on Zetterberg. This gave the Wings another hopeful power play opportunity. The Wings offense stormed into the Hawk zone and placed constant pressure on Anderson. During this time, Yzerman, and Schneider particularly made some major shots on goal.

At 14:42, Curtis Brown received a hooking call. In the following Wings power play, the Hawks managed to keep the Wings from pressuring their goal too much, by simply clearing it. Four minutes later, Kris Draper was also called on a hooking penalty for hooking Keith. The second period came to a close, with one minute left in the Hawks power play to carry over into the third.

3rd period
The third period started off a bit slow, with both teams building up momentum against each other. At 3:36, Michal Barinka was caught with a cross checking penalty for checking Maltby against the boards from behind. This maneuver by Barkinka was completely uncalled-for and unnecessary, since the play was within the Hawks own territory. This sent the Wings into another power play. Four seconds later, at 3:40, Datsyuk gave an amazing tip to Zetterberg, who blasted the puck past Anderson, for a goal. At this point, the score read 4-2, with the Wings in the lead.

With the power play terminated, the Hawks brought the puck back into the Wing zone. Bochenski took a shot on Osgood, which ended up going wide of the net. The puck was soon given away to Draper, who skated it to the other end of the ice. A set up was made as Mowers passed the puck to Lidstrom, who slapped it towards the net. The puck was then tipped by Cleary, but saved by Anderson.

The Hawks cleared the puck into the Wings territory, however, Draper regained control of the puck and weaved past the Hawk’s defense. Datsyuk shot the puck in front of the net, but it was deflected by Anderson once again.

At 10:36, Cullen won a face off against Draper, and made a goal from a slap shot opportunity before the net. The Hawks tried to pressure the Wings zone more, but they eventually gave the puck away the Wings. Zetterberg grabbed the puck and skated behind the back door of the Hawks net. He then tipped it to Schneider, who got it past Anderson for a goal. This marks Schneider’s 20th goal of the season.

The Hawks gave the Wings one last burst of momentum, even though all hope was lost. Patrick Sharp took the puck and made a snapshot maneuver on Osgood. It appeared as if Cross knocked into Sharp after his shot on goal. This incident sparked a small fight between Sharp and Cross. Both were sent to the penalty box on roughing penalties. This made the player ratio 4 on 4. Neither team accomplished anything during this time.

At 17:42, Kronwall was caught with a tripping penalty, for tripping up Rene Bourque. With the one-man advantage, the Hawks tried to pressure Osgood one last time. Lapointe and Bell both made shots on goal, however they ended up going wide of the net. The game ended in the Wings zone.

Abel to Yzerman game report

Wings 6, Hawks 4

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 11, 2006
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks and Game Reports
. 7 Comments

The Wings did what was expected tonight, winning another game over Chicago, but they won’t be happy with their lackadaisical third period performance that nearly resulted in a Blackhawk comeback. The Hawks now carry a lot more momentum into tomorrow night’s game than they should, though the Wings ought to be upset enough that it shouldn’t matter.

The game began with the Hawks on top. They scored a strange goal just over a minute in and for a little while it seemed like it would be their night. At 1:08, Matthew Barnaby knocked the puck into the net after Martin Lapointe’s shot went off the endboards and bounced back out front. It was a sudden goal on a harmless looking play and Manny didn’t have much of a chance to stop it.

The Wings were getting some chances but were unable to connect to finish on them. Pavel Datsyuk had a particularly nice shift around 5:00, undressing Khabibulin and the Chicago defense but sending the puck just wide as he ran out of real estate. Just after that, Franzen and Cleary went on a break but Cleary’s shot was wide.

Fortunately, a break about 30 seconds later had a different result. Brendan Shanahan took a pass from Kris Draper and let loose a shot from the blueline off the rush. Khabibulin made the save but kicked the rebound right to Datsyuk in the slot, handing Pavel an easy one-timer goal at 6:25.

Less than two minutes later, Williams took the puck up ice on a break and got a shot off, which was stopped. His linemates joined him, though, and pressure continued, leading directly to the team’s second goal seconds later. Lang’s shot from Khabibulin’s right was stopped but the rebound came right back to him. Instead of shooting it again, he sent a nice, slow pass to the slot, where Steve Yzerman one-timed it into the mostly empty net to give the Wings the lead at 8:08. Nice play by Lang and a great goal by The Captain.

The Wings continued to get good chances but the Hawks scored next almost four minutes later. Again, it was a weird goal and came suddenly on another harmless looking play. Milan Bartovic took the puck behind the net and sent it back out front to Mikael Holmqvist, who knocked it in from the side of the net to tie the game up again. It was a bad angle stopped and probably should have been stopped by Legace. Can’t say I was too happy about that one.

Kris Draper and Nicklas Lidstrom got a 2-on-1 rush a minute later and it nearly resulted in a goal but Nick couldn’t knock it in at the post despite his long reach. Not long after that, Zetterberg took the puck through center and into the Chicago zone with a nice individual effort but lost the puck in the high slot. Mark Mowers picked it up, however, and let loose a shot that beat Khabibulin cleanly from not too far out. Not a great goal for the Russian to give up. The Wings took the lead at 13:28.

After that, the refs decided this Original Six rivalry game had gone long enough without having a penalty and they called Woolley for interference. Not long after that, the Hawks were called for interference as well and the teams went to four a side. Niklas Kronwall was called for high sticking 14 seconds later and the Hawks got a 4-on-3 power play. They ended up getting more going on the subsequent 4-on-4 period but a great lunging defensive play by Zetterberg disrupted their best chance down low.

Robert Lang and Henrik Zetterberg each had big chances after individual efforts towards the end of the period but neither could convert, though Hank’s shot rang off the post. The final minute of the period looked like a Detroit power play as the Wings really put the screws to Chicago but they couldn’t get the puck in the net.

The second period opened with fairly even play. The Wings didn’t take long to extend their lead, however. At 5:28, Rene Bourque was called for tripping and at 5:33, Henrik Zetterberg scored his 32nd to put his team ahead by two. Hank won the faceoff and headed to the net as Lidstrom passed the puck across to Williams, who let loose a shot/pass to the opposite side of the net. Zetterberg tipped the puck off the post and into the net to score one of the easiest looking power play goals I’ve seen.

As the teams headed to the halfway mark of the game, the Wings were dominant again, making it seem like they were once again on the power play.

Pavel Datsyuk took the puck on a rush at 10:25 or so and made a great pass through Shanahan and the Chicago defense to a streaking Draper for the Wings’ fifth goal. Khabibulin was pulled after that one and was replaced by Craig Anderson.

Mark Mowers, playing again for Mikael Samuelsson, had a breakaway at 14:32 and nearly scored a highlight reel goal but he just couldn’t get the backhand shot high enough to finish it.

At 18:26, the Hawks got two penalties one for hooking and another for complaining about it, giving the Wings a full-length 5-on-3 power play. The Wings had a few chances on their first try but it was cleared and they regrouped. The Hawks got another penalty but it wasn’t going to start until the other two expired or the Wings scored and negated one of them. The latter is what happened, as Steve Yzerman scored a goal that can only be described as inevitable. The Wings’ power play was unstoppable here . They had Anderson going every which way until he finally took himself way out of position on Shanahan’s shot from the corner. The puck bounced off him right to Yzerman who shot it over the prone goalie, who was helpless to do anything but watch it go in. I actually felt bad for the guy. Yzerman’s second goal of the night put him three goals away from tying Mario Lemieux (690) for 8th all-time in goals scored.

Yzerman’s goal ended one Chicago penalty but started the latest, giving the Wings a 26 second 5-on-3 to begin the third period. The Hawks killed off the 26 seconds but had to deal with a 5-on-4 power play after that. Yzerman nearly got his third goal on a flurry around the net but it somehow stayed out and Wings fans were denied seeing The Captain score a hat trick.

The Wings didn’t look so hot in the third, but they were fortunate to have penalty-prone opponents. Otherwise, this game might have had a different end. As it was, it looked like the Hawks could tie it up as they scored twice in about a minute after the midway point of the period.

Patrick Sharp scored a nice goal after taking the puck down the right wing, cutting across the net and sending a backhand shot past Legace at 13:37 to make it 6-3.

At 14:40, the Hawks scored a shorthanded goal when Barnaby sent a nice pass to Curtis Brown, who tipped the puck into the net while Schneider tried desperately to disrupt the play.

After that, the Wings woke up a bit and the pace of the game quickened. The Hawks pulled Anderson with 1:05 left and the Wings got a high sticking penalty with 38 seconds left, seeming very much like they’d rather Chicago win the game. Fortunately, Manny still wanted the win and he made the necessary saves to preserve the score. Yzerman was out there for the final shift but he wasn’t able to get the puck down the ice into the net for the hat trick.

The Wings outshot Chicago 46-29 to surpass their season high in shots (by one)

They will face the Hawks again tomorrow night, in Chicago, at 7:00 ET.

GameDay: vs. Chicago (20-33-9, 49 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 11, 2006
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks and GameDay
. 0 Comments

Tonight is the fifth of eight games (bleh!) between these two Central Division teams this season. The Wings lead the season series 4-0, with three of those wins coming during the three-game mini-series from October 27th to November 1st (5-2, 4-2, 4-1). The other win came on December 23rd, a 3-2 overtime decision. The teams will face off again tomorrow, in Chicago, at 7:00 ET.

Since the Olympic Break, the Wings have played only Pacific Division opponents and have gone 3-2 in the five games since returning to the States. They are coming off a home win over the Kings, a game with the misleading score of 7-3. It was a much more closely contested game than the score indicates but a goal explosion in the third period gave the Wings the victory.

The Wings will be joined in practice today by newly acquired defenseman Cory Cross. Cross will not be in the lineup tonight, however, but should be tomorrow night in Chicago, the Freep reports. To make room for Cross, the Wings sent rookie defenseman Brett Lebda down to Grand Rapids, where he will get playing time instead of sitting in a suite at JLA.

Manny Legace should get the start tonight, though I’d expect Babcock to go with Chris Osgood tomorrow night. Manny is playing well but I’d still like to see a couple one- or no-goal games by him before the playoffs. He won’t very often get away with allowing three goals in the postseason.

The Hawks are 2-3 since the Break, having played an assortment of Central, Northwestern, and Pacific Division teams. In their first game back, they shut out Nashville 3-0 but they lost their next two games, 5-4 (SO) to Vancouver and 7-2 to Dallas. They won a Central Division lightweight battle on the 7th, beating Columbus 3-1 but fell 2-1 to Colorado on Thursday.

Chicago was a dealer once again this deadline. They traded center Tyler Arnasson to Ottawa for winger Brandon Bochenski after dealing center Jim Dowd to Colorado for a fourth-rounder. Dowd joined the Avs that day and played in their game against the Hawks, registering an assist against his former team.

They have used three different goalies in their last three games but will probably stick with Nikolai Khabibulin, who returned from a knee injury to play Thursday against the Avs after missing over a month of games.

Tonight will be a reminder of just how stupid the NHL’s new scheduling system is. I think we’ve seen the Hawks enough already, don’t you?

Wings 3, Blackhawks 2 (OT)

Published
by
Brian List
on December 24, 2005
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks and Game Reports
. 2 Comments

The last game before the Wings’ Christmas break proved to be a wild one, with two late Wings goals tying it to send it to overtime, and a Pavel Datsyuk buzzer-beater as time expired in the extra session. It made for the Wings’ third straight win, and sixth win in their last ten. It also secured their place at the top of the Central Division, with the Predators threatening a share of the top spot with a win earlier tonight. It’s now 51-49 Wings in the Central Division points race - the Predators with three games in hand. The Wings lead the season series against Chicago 4-0, and are 10-1-0 in the Central Division. Pathetic. It’s easily the worst division in hockey today.

The first period opened with the Blackhawks carrying most of the energy, and the Wings hanging on until their two first period power play chances. The Wings’ best chance of the period came at 14:55 when Shanahan carried the puck from behind Khabibulin and beat him far side with a wrister - only to hit the post.

Chicago scored the only first period goal at 19:20, on a follow-up goal from Arnason. On the play, Jason Williams muffed the puck around center ice left boards, and Mark Bell stole it and crashed the net. The rebound came out to a trailing Arnason, who easily beat a sprawling Ozzie. 1-0 Chicago. Apparently Arnason was benched in the Blackhawks’ last game, the team struggling and desperate to get its players going. So it was nice to see the guy get a goal, though not at the Wings’ expense. And not at Williams’ expense. It was a terrible giveaway as he tried to pass the puck to himself along the boards, and just got beat by a hustling Bell. Shots 11-8 Chicago in the first.

The second period was much like the first for the Wings. They were outhustled and beat in the corners by the home team. It really was a boring period, with the Wings on their heels most of the time. The best chance came off of a Kris Draper shot around the 12 minute mark but it hit the post. Chicago scored the only goal of the period on another bad Wings giveaway. This time four Wings players were caught in the offensive zone after the puck was coughed up, and former Wing Martin Lapointe (now #22) carried the puck into the Wings zone with a 3-on-1. It was a give-and-go, Lapointe passing to Barnaby at center, before getting the puck back on the right side and tapping it in behind Ozzie. 2-0 Chicago.

It was also an interesting goal by Lapointe, because he had recently blasted his teammates’ effort in the last few games. Words backed up. But I didn’t appreciate his goal as much Arnason’s. Lapointe left Detroit to cash in on his one good season in 2000-2001. He missed the Wings’ Cup run in 2002, and hasn’t done anything since his breakout 27 G, 30 A last season with the Wings. Ten seasons with the Wings - the team that drafted him in ‘91 and had him pegged as the next captain. What a loser. Shots 13-9 Chicago in the second.

The third period was much better for the Wings. They had probably triple the quality chances from the previous 40 minutes. Henrik Zetterberg and Brendan Shanahan had the most chances, and the night was summed up on one play. As Holmstrom found himself open in front of Khabibulin, certain to score, his stick broke as he attempted a shot. It was a frustrating moment for all Wings fans, but I couldn’t help but feel especially bad for those fans who had made the trip from Detroit for this game. The Chicago-Detroit game is always a special one in the United Center, but the Wings were really flat for much of this game.

A few minutes after I was feeling sorry for the Wings fans in the United Center, Ozzie was pulled and a comeback was staged. At 19:21, Kris Draper scored on a redirection of a Jason Woolley point shot. It wasn’t the normal redirection that you’d imagine, but more of a shot by Draper, between the circles, that snuck in under the top corner. 2-1 Chicago. After the faceoff at center, the Wings were called for offsides at 19:28. Datsyuk won the neutral zone faceoff, and the Wings gained the Chicago zone. With time about to expire, the Wings scored on a point shot from Lidstrom at 19:53. It was a controversial goal, as Khabibulin was knocked into by Lang I think it was, and he started arguing the call as he was getting beat by the Lidstrom shot. It fell on deaf ears though. 2-2 tie. Assists from Lang and Datsyuk. Shots in the period were 17-5 Wings.

The overtime was pretty uneventful, and it looked like a shootout was all but certain. Babcock was ready with his Williams-Datsyuk-Zetterberg shootout picks, but twas not to be. In the same style as their last second tying of the game, the Wings got a late goal from Datsyuk at 4:59 to make it a 3-2 win. It was a power play goal, as Duncan Keith was called for tripping at 1:52.

On the play, Datsyuk took a shot from the right circle, and, as the puck crossed the line, the green light went on instead of the red light. Everyone in the United Center thought the game was headed to a shootout, but it turns out the goal judge didn’t have time to react to the puck crossing the line before the green light went on: the red light can’t go on after the green one is triggered. The refs initially waved it no-goal, but went upstairs to review the play. All the viewers on FSN were left in suspense, as the station didn’t have a replay of the play showing time remaining in the same frame. Definitely something NFL or NBA coverage would surely have with their billion dollar TV deals, but such is the price of local coverage of the Wings. Hopefully they get that fixed for the next time it happens.

The refs pointed to center ice - it was a goal! The only replay I saw was the puck crossing the line and the green light going on a few frames later, but nothing with how much time was actually left. Nothing scientific, and I wonder if anyone upstairs had the time remaining to look at or if they just “eye-balled” it with comparing when the green light went on. Martin Lapointe was very mad at the refs after the goal, and received a 10 minute misconduct. Says Lapointe:

“The overtime calls hurt the game. It’s a big game, a big rivalry. The refs should let us play. I guess this is the new NHL. To lose a game on a cheap penalty is not the way to play hockey.”

It was a great comeback win for the Wings, to be able to score two goals in the last minute of a otherwise sloppy game to force overtime and pull off a last second overtime win. Wings fans are used to these types of comebacks, but it doesn’t really make me feel better for the three hours I spent watching this game. I was really bored/frustrated until the third period, when the Wings started playing hard, and even then pucks were hitting the post or sticks were breaking at inopportune times. It just felt like one of those nights where nothing could possibly go right - which made it really weird when 15 minutes later the Wings were headed to the dressing room with a win.

Final shots were 37-31 Wings. The Wings played with only 11 forwards. Some notable lines. Opening the game was Datsyuk-Shanahan-Draper, with Datsyuk-Shanahan-Zetterberg the most used-line in the third.

GameDay: @ Chicago (13-18-2, 28 Pts) 8:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on December 23, 2005
in 2005-2006, Blackhawks and GameDay
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Tonight is the fourth of eight games the Wings will play against Chicago this season. They lead the season series 3-0 after playing the Hawks three games in a row at the end of October and beginning of November. They won 5-2 on October 27th and then went to Chicago to win two nights later, 4-2. On November 1st, they were back at the Joe and won again, 4-1. This last game was when Manny Legace’s knee troubles began.

The Wings won their first shootout ever Tuesday, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets when Chris Osgood stopped Sergei Fedorov’s attempt after Pavel Datsyuk and Jason Williams scored on their shots. The win came in their first game back from a three-game road trip in which they played Atlanta, Florida and Tampa Bay, going 1-1-1 over that span. Some of the Wings have to be riding a high after being named to their nations’ Olympic roster. A total of ten Red Wings will go to Turin and it is very probably that at least one of them will return with a gold medal.

The Hawks’ season has not gone very well. They had high hopes for last season’s Stanley Cup-winning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin but he has not performed at a very high level so far this season. They have only won once in their past five games and have allowed five or more goals in five of their last six, the only exception being their 5-1 win over the Blues last Friday. They most recently lost to Nashville, 6-1, on Wednesday.

Chris Osgood will get the start tonight, with Joey MacDonald backing him up.

The News reports that Mathieu Schneider will return from his leg injury tonight after missing one game.

Despite the Hawks’ record, tonight’s game likely won’t be an easy one for the Wings. Chicago has a way of getting up to play Detroit and so I don’t expect them to roll over this time. Still, the Wings should win and this game should help them get momentum going as we head into the new year.