On the Wings

The Wings wrapped up their Western Conference Quarterfinal series with the Flames after posting a 2-1 double overtime win in Calgary last night. The game was a fitting end to a series that went on longer than it should have due to the goaltending of Miikka Kiprusoff as Kipper once again kept the Flames in a game in which they were outplayed. The Wings outshot Calgary 55-21 in Game 6, bringing the series totals to 255-129 Detroit.

I’m not doing a blow-by-blow recap on this one, so I’ll leave it at some thoughts on things that stood out.

… Dominik Hasek was amazing last night. While the Wings outplayed the Flames overall, Calgary had a number of Grade A chances that could have put the game out of reach, but Dom stood on his head and made some huge saves. His save on a Dion Phaneuf shot from the slot at 12:20 of the third period was definitely the stop of the game in my mind and it was emblematic of Dom’s overall performance last night. He more than lived up to the pressure placed on him and the acquisition I was so against at the time has already paid off in a big way.

As far as talk about the series goaltending goes, Kiprusoff is obviously getting a lot, and deservedly so. However, I believe Hasek deserves plenty of press for his performance as well. You can say his goals against is padded by his defense, but his save percentage is a more-than-respectable .922, which demonstrates he was strong despite only facing 129 shots. He’s done his job very capably and held the Flames off when they were looking for a boost.

… Robert Lang finally broke out of his shell and had a strong game. His goal came out of nowhere and his play on the game-winner was stellar as he drew away the Flames defenders and left Franzen a good shooting lane. Lang demonstrated solid effort most of the time last night and was involved in the offense in ways we’ve been hoping for all series. In that way, he reminds me of Brett Hull in 2002, as Brett also took most of the series to get going. Hopefully Robert will contribute from this point on in ways similar to Hull’s performance in those playoffs.

… Johan Franzen had a whale of a game. As for his goal in the second overtime, Dave said it best in the comments to the gameday post: “Franzen! Poetic justice!” That was one heck of a shot by the second-year player. Not many people can beat Kipper over his glove hand like that. I expected Johan to be a big factor in the series and, while he didn’t perform quite as I had expected, you don’t get much bigger than being the scorer of the series-clinching goal.

… Tomas Holmstrom was the victim of a wild high stick by Craig Conroy in the first overtime. I’m not sure what Conroy was doing with his stick, but it had no business near Homer’s face. Pretty stupid of him, as it put the Wings on a 4:00 power play. Unfortunately, they did little more than give us all heart attacks as they had chance after chance after chance to put the game away. As for Holmstrom, he was taken to the hospital as a precaution, with a bandage over his eye. No word as of yet about the extent of the injury, but obviously the hope is that his eye is okay. The Wings definitely missed him on that long power play and will miss him as the playoffs go on, if he cannot play.

… Dan Cleary continued his stellar series with another fit-causing performance last night. He broke in behind the Calgary defense late in the second period, but didn’t have time to do anything but shoot the puck, or else we may have had a result similar to his penalty shot goal. As it was, Kiprusoff made a tough save look easy. Late in the third period, Dan sent the puck off the right post on a rocket shot from high in the zone. That would have been the nail in the Flames’ coffin. Aside from his offensive contributions, Cleary continued his physical play and finished with 4 hits, which was second on the team.

… Andreas Lilja wrapped up his own great series with an 8-hit night, leading all skaters, and a well-earned 29:35 on the ice. I don’t know what happened the Regular Season Lilja (a great explanation is that an alien has taken over his body), but, believe me, I’m thankful for how well he played against the Flames. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself surprised at saying, “Nice play, Lilja” “Who’s back? Good, it’s Andreas,” or “Wow, Lils.” If the Wings handed out an award for Most Improved Player, the recipient would definitely be Lilja. Keep it up!

… Despite some disturbing lapses, Nick Lidstrom finished the series as an early Conn Smythe candidate. His 8 points led all skaters and on the defensive side, he shut down Jarome Iginla, who had only four points. Overall, Nick was rock solid, as usual.

… I was impressed with Todd Bertuzzi’s outing last night. I still think he’s trying too hard to be cute and a team player (you can be more selfish at times, Todd), but he’s been a physical force and frequently wows as he demonstrates his disproportionately soft hands on offensive forays. He had a nice assist on Lang’s goal and is becoming more involved in the offense every game.

… Kyle Quincey acquitted himself very well last night, I thought. He earned an assist on Lang’s goal, and was out on the ice for at least two defensive zone faceoffs following Detroit icings, without blowing it either time. I didn’t notice him make any big mistakes at all; rather, he looked solid and confident with the puck and with playing the body. A good debut, to be sure.

… Henrik Zetterberg had what I thought was a stellar game on defense. He really warmed up over the length of the series, which was definitely one of the good things about it going to six games.

… I really thought Pavel Datsyuk solidified himself as one of the game’s underrated defensive forwards last night. Yes, you read that right: defensive forward.

… Mike Babcock predictably won the coaching battle. Playfair is obviously a bit of a joke as far as his NHL coaching abilities go, so it’s not that much of a feat for Babcock to have beaten him. Still, this is a big deal for Babs, who really needed this in order to ensure his job security.

… For those of us who were upset that there were no further suspensions after Saturday’s end-of-game debacle, we can find solace in the fact that Iginla and Langkow played very little part in the game. Jarome did have a goal, but for all his bluster about getting his team fired up, his final performance of the season was more of a wimper than a bang. I’m with Dave in saying,

“Beating Calgary on their home ice with both Daymond Langkow and Jarome Iginla in the lineup and then having those players take part in the handshake at the end of the series was the best form of justice you could ask for.”

… For the team as a whole, it was an impressive series. The Wings demonstrated that they aren’t going to back down from physical contact, whereas in previous years, they were manhandled; that they can overcome adversity, whereas in previous years they would have collapsed; and that they can beat a hot goalie, when previously they’ve been unable to do so.

… We’ll know who the Wings’ second-round opponent is after tonight’s Canucks/Stars Game 7. It’ll be either Dallas or San Jose. If you’ve read this blog much, you know who I’d prefer: the Stars. I don’t want them because the Wings whomped on them during the regular season, or because they “own” Marty Turco. To me, the primary consideration is travel. Flying to Dallas, a mere one timezone away, is much preferable to flying out to San Jose. That’s a no-brainer. The Wings will have to go to California at some point in the postseason, if they keep going, but for now, the best thing for them, I think, is to face a team closer to home.

… Be sure to check out Dave’s recap of the game, as well as Christy and IwoCPO’s roundups.

Alright, by now you know all about the Flames’ meltdown in the third period yesterday. If not, you can read about it here, here, and here, among other places. We’re still waiting to see the full extent of fallout from the incidents yesterday, but we do know that the Wings have probably been forced to make a lineup change, as they’ve called up Kyle Quincey, who will likely replace Brett Lebda in tonight’s game. Lebda got a combination of a leg injury and a concussion from an altercation with Daymond Langkow in the third period yesterday.

One of the most interesting things to come out of this whole thing is the story of Ken Holland’s angry confrontation of NHL VP Frank Brown after the game yesterday, as related by Bruce MacLeod. Basically, Holland demanded suspensions be handed out and implied that if the NHL doesn’t do it out of a sense of justice, they should at least do it out of debt to the Wings as a “good soldier” for the NHL. If the Wings need to cash in some brownie points with the League in order for us all to see the Flames punished, there is something seriously wrong here. The NHL should hand out suspensions because yesterday’s fiasco was a smear on the name of hockey and punishments would go some way in erasing that smear.

Also, is anyone surprised by Don Cherry’s comments defending the Flames’ actions? I’m not. I used to look forward to watching Coach’s Corner on HNIC, but no more.

Anyway, I don’t want to focus here on the nastiness at the end of the game. I would like to relate how the Wings played, which is an aspect of Game 5 that I think is being lost in all the hue and cry about the end of the third period. Of course, I’ll get to those things at the end of this report, but I don’t want to dwell on them.

Babcock started the team’s most consistently dangerous line, Dan Cleary, Kris Draper, and Kirk Maltby. They didn’t do a whole lot in that first shift, however. The second line to come over the boards was Pavel Datsyuk’s, with Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom.

During that shift, Hank broke into the Calgary end and continued at the net, deking some to get through the crowd. He lost the puck, however, and then was held from getting it and the chance fizzled out.

Not long after that, the puck rolled off the end of Todd Bertuzzi’s stick in the Detroit end, leading to a great chance for Alex Tanguay, but he sent it wide as Hasek came out to cut down the angle.

A half minute or so after Tanguay’s blown chance, Valtteri Filppula missed a great opportunity of his own. He had Kiprusoff down and out on a flurry around the net, but shanked the shot a little and didn’t get it high enough.

A minute after that, Danny Markov stepped up and it led to a 2-on-1 break for the Flames, with Mathieu Schneider back to handle Jeff Friesen and Marcus Nilson. Nilson dished the puck across to Friesen and Hasek made the save.

After that, the play was pretty much up and down, with no one holding a clear advantage. There was good pace to the game. Gradually, the Flames took over a bit and got a few good chances, but Hasek was up to the task and made the necessary saves.

At 8:29, the Flames took their first penalty of the game, a Primeau hook on Brett Lebda, who was heading to the net on a set up. After Calgary touched, a scrum ensued and the result was a Dan Cleary slashing penalty. With the teams skating four a side, the Wings controlled the majority of the play. Johan Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk had a couple shots and Valtteri Filppula, Mathieu Schneider, and Todd Bertuzzi combined for a nice shift. At the tail-end of this stretch, Matthew Lombardi got behind the Wings’ defense and broke in on Hasek with Schneider trailing. Dom stoned him.

With four seconds remaining on the 4-on-4, Roman Hamrlik took a holding penalty as Mikael Samuelsson carried the puck into the Calgary end. The subsequent Detroit power play wasn’t bad, with Mathieu Schneider getting off a couple shots and Robert Lang getting a nice chance off a steal, but they couldn’t score.

Half a minute after the power play ended, there was an interesting sequence of events that led to a Kirk Maltby goaltender interference penalty and a waived-off Detroit goal. It all started when Maltby stepped out from behind the net with the puck and stuffed it into Kiprusoff’s pads. He kept coming out front, away from Kipper, but obviously looking for the rebound. Kiprusoff’s defensemen, understandably, did not like this plan and tried to do something about it. What I don’t understand is the tact they took. Mark Giordano, with the help of his defensive partner decided that it’d be better to knock Maltby down on top of Kiprusoff than to allow him to get to the puck. So, Maltby went flying backward on to Kipper, while a Red Wing knocked the puck into the net. Rather than call Giordano for cross-checking or something, the official deemed Maltby’s action to be purposeful and gave him a penalty for it and denied the Wings the goal. It was just the latest in a long series of incidents involving Calgary defensemen knocking Wings over onto their own goalie.

On the penalty kill, there was a tense moment where Chris Chelios blew a tire and the ice was suddenly very open for a Flames chance. Cheli got up, however, and was able to get the puck and clear it. The rest of the kill was great, with Andreas Lilja closing off Jarome Iginla, Dan Cleary throwing the body around, and Kris Draper and Henrik Zetterberg creating shorthanded pressure.

An interesting sequence for those of us who have lost faith in Robert Lang: around the 15:30 mark, he had a glorious chance and came very close to scoring. The puck was then iced by the Wings and Lang had to take the ensuing faceoff. He won it. It was shocking.

Around 17:00, give or take 20 seconds, the Flames held the puck in the Detroit end, cycling it. At 17:47, Mathieu Schneider closed off David Moss along the left wing boards and was whistled for hooking. It was a play similar to what the Flames had been doing all day as well as the whole series. The Flames put on a good power play, with Tony Amonte getting two chances out front, Dion Phaneuf and Roman Hamrlik both getting booming shots off, as well as a couple other good scoring chances by players whose numbers I didn’t catch. Dominik Hasek was rock-solid, however, and Calgary did not score.

After the period ended, there was a scrum in the Detroit end. Chris Chelios was incensed with Jarome Iginla after the later threw an elbow at Henrik Zetterberg. It was a nice preview for later events.

Todd Bertuzzi made his presence known early in the second period as he cruised around the Calgary end, deflecting bodies off him like a snowplow. Andrei Zyuzin vainly held his jersey and was lucky he wasn’t called. The Wings took their first penalty of the period at 2:01 after a Chelios shot was blocked by Alex Tanguay at the blueline. Another Flame picked it up and the two took off for a fast break. Chelios turned to cover the puck carrier and brought his stick up and around, catching Tanguay in the face quite accidentally. An obvious high sticking call, even if it was accidental. Have to keep control of your stick, you see.

The Flames had some trouble setting up on the power play and it wasn’t long before Dan Cleary picked up the puck and streaked down the left wing with speed you rarely see from him. He was hauled down by Hamrlik, but still managed to get a shot off, which was stopped by Kiprusoff. Because of that, I figured it’d only be a tripping penalty on Hamrlik, which is what I started writing down. Then I looked up and noticed that Dan was at center and I realized he was getting a penalty shot. He took it in, deked forehand to backhand around Kiprusoff’s pokecheck and sliced it over the a prone Kipper to put the Wings ahead 1-0 at 3:32. I love it when Cleary demonstrates the hands that got him drafted so high. The reaction from the bench was priceless, particularly Pavel Datsyuk’s face. It was a look that said either, “I told him to do that!” or “I would have done that, too!”

Not long after the goal, there was another interesting sequence involving Robert Lang. He had a nice carry-in and dropped the puck off the Bertuzzi. He headed down low and then Bertuzzi sent it on ahead of him, but Robert just skated by the puck like it wasn’t there. Not sure what he was doing.

Miikka Kiprusoff made what may have been the save of the game at 5:59 when Henrik Zetterberg walked out from behind the net and took a shot from 9 feet out. Kipper somehow managed to stop it with his bicep in a save that should have been just about impossible to make. On that same play, Holmstrom took a roughing penalty and the Wings returned to the penalty kill. There was little worth reporting, as the Wings kept the Flames from setting up and killed off the penalty with little trouble.

At 8:10, Alex Tanguay took a hooking penalty and the Wings went back on the power play. It took them 40 seconds to score. Not long after a borderline boarding hit on Brad Stuart by Tomas Holmstrom, Lidstrom dished Zetterberg the puck just as the latter had stepped up to the top of the right circle. He one-timed the puck through the legs of Holmstrom, who was standing out front screening Kiprusoff and it went in 5-hole. Stuart probably should have been less concerned with the hit by Holmstrom and more with doing his job of defending. 2-0 Wings at 8:50.

Immediately after the goal, there was a scary moment as play was stopped due to an injury to a Wing at center ice. It was Dan Cleary and he was crumpled next to the board by the benches, and my thoughts immediately turned to images of Claude Lemieux boarding Kris Draper over a decade ago. I knew Cleary had been giving the Flames fits and I feared one of them had snapped. Very quickly, though, that thought was nixed by Pierre McGuire, who informed us that Cleary had hit a rut in the ice and had wiped out on his own. He had made a “loud noise” when he hit the boards and as he wasn’t moving, things looked bleak, especially when a stretcher was called out. The fans at the Joe, apparently unaware of what had happened, despite the fact that replays were probably showing on the screen, began chanting, “Ref you suck!” in reference to the fact that no penalty had been called on the play. Obviously, there wasn’t anything to penalize, so they just came off sounding pretty stupid. With Cleary’s status still in doubt, NBC of course chose that time to cut to a series of lengthy commercials. When they returned, Dan was being helped off the ice without the need of the stretcher.

After that, the Wings put on some good pressure in the Calgary end. Todd Bertuzzi had a glorious chance all alone in front of Kiprusoff and chose to shoot the puck into the “C” crest on Kipper’s jersey rather than make a move that may have resulted in a goal.

At the other end of the ice, the Flames had a good scoring chance, and after the play was whistled, there was a bit of a violent scrum around the net. Mathieu Schneider railed David Moss and was called for cross-checking on the play at 10:25. Unfortunately for the Flames, it would be the Wings who would come out on top on the ensuing man-advantage. The Flames turned the puck over at the Detroit blueline and Johan Franzen carried it down the ice on the left side. Chris Chelios, trailing, called for the puck and was given it. He one-timed a shot and beat Kiprusoff in the slot to give the Wings a shorthanded goal at 10:54. It was Cheli’s first goal of the year.

While still on the penalty kill, Pavel Datsyuk had a nice chance of his own and forced Kiprusoff to make a good save. At the other end, Iginla charged in down the right wing, but Hasek stopped the shot. Penalty killed off.

It didn’t take long for the Wings to take another penalty, however. At 14:37, they were called for having too many men on the ice. The Flames had trouble setting up and when they did, both refs called Chris Chelios for slashing, which gave the Calgary about a minute and a half of 5-on-3. Alex Tanguay sent a shot wide, Iginla was stopped by Hasek in close, and Phaneuf was stopped by Dom on a long slapshot. Finally the zone was cleared by Zetterberg. The Wings killed off both penalties.

Dan Cleary returned to the ice around 17:40 and immediately got into the thick of things. Dion Phaneuf wasted little time going after him, welcoming him back to the game with a friendly elbow to the head. Not long after that, Pavel Datsyuk had a nice chance in Kipper as he got behind the Calgary defense, but he was stopped. Franzen tried to take advantage of a giveway by dishing the puck off to Bertuzzi, but a nice defensive play by Hamrlik kept anything from happening. On his next time out, Cleary was railed by Giordano. And the period ended.

The Wings had a great first shift in the third, with the top line and top defensive pairing creating pressure and getting some chances as a result. They weren’t about to step off the gas.

The Flames weren’t going to give up, however, and they had a couple good pressure shifts of their own. Craig Conroy and Alex Tanguay, in particular, were dangerous early on.

At 4:48, Dan Cleary drew a penatly on Rhett Warrener, who was dumb enough to hold Cleary to the boards when he could have just let go. It didn’t take the Wings long to score again and put themselves p 4-0. The Wings ground the puck out at the blueline and, after a nice keep-in by Lidstrom, it ended up on the stick of Pavel Datsyuk. Pavel dished it off to Hank, who took the pass on the backhand, switched to the forehand, and beat Kipper high at 5:12 from right in front of the net. A great goal.

At this point, the JLA crowd started taunting Kiprusoff. Not long after the goal, Cleary took a hard shot from a bad angle and it looked like it hurt Kipper, but he continued playing.

Iginla took a tripping penatly at 9:01 when he corkscrewed Nick Lidstrom. He still found grounds to argue the call, however, despite the fact that it was a clear trip. Unfortunately for the Wings, they wouldn’t be the ones controlling the play with the man-advantage. The Flames got a 2-on-1 break with Conroy carrying the puck and Lombardi flying wingman. A nice pass from Conroy led to a great chance for Lombardi, but Hasek made the save. The puck remained in play, however, and soon ended up on Lombardi’s stick after a nice turnover by Lang. He took a shot that deflected off a Wing and it was then knocked down by Zyuzin out front before it went into the net. The play was reviewed to make sure it hadn’t been knocked down with a high stick and it ended up being ruled a goal. Flames within three at 10:03.

Not long after the goal, play was whistled dead because two players were down in the Detroit end. Replays showed that Brett Lebda had hit Langkow lower than he should have and it looked like Langkow’s knee had bent at a bad angle. I was cringing at that while watching the replay continue and what I saw next just pissed me off. Both players went into the boards hard, with Lebda going in feet-first, but Langkow was the first to move. He rolled over, grabbed Lebda, hauled back his right arm, and threw a sucker punch and just held him there. Then, he laid back down like he had been hurt. Lebda got a concussion from the punch on top of a hurt knee/ankle and a clipping penalty, while Langkow was able to get up, skate way, and finish the game. Obviously, the NHL is reviewing the incident and we’ll hopefully hear news about a suspension soon.

With Todd Bertuzzi serving Brett’s penalty, the Wings killed it off. The Flames started showing that it wasn’t just Langkow that had lost it, as they began running the net with impunity. Valtteri Filppula, playing with Datsyuk and Zetterberg, had a great chance around the 15:00 mark and then Pavel shrugged off a big hit attempt by Phaneuf. Then the game entered the stage so many people are talking about.

At 15:18, Lilja drew a tripping call from Langkow and then Bertuzzi went after Phaneuf. They both threw off their gloves, but it wasn’t so much a fight as a hugging contest, which ended when Todd body-slammed the Flames defenseman. The were both given fighting majors.

On the ensuing power play, Nick Lidstrom sent a shot off the backboards. It bounced out front again and Pavel Datsyuk knocked it into the net for an easy goal. 5-1 Wings at 15:42.

A minute after the goal, Primeau took a slashing penalty and Playfair chose that time to take Kiprusoff out of the game. While the Wings were on the power play, the backup, Jamie McLennan slashed Franzen twice and was called for it. After he touched the puck behind the net, the play was whistled dead and he then took a baseball swing at Franzen’s midsection. As Franzen fell to the ice, the officials swarmed McLennan and he was thrown out of the game.

While on the 5-on-3 power play, Jiri Hudler was called for goaltender interference and we went to 4-on-3 hockey. Not long after Primeau stepped out of the box, Jarome Iginla committed about three penalties, but was only called for two of them. Back to 4-on-3 hockey. At this point, Marcus Nilson started trying to provoke a fight and he was called for cross-checking at 19:50. Finally, the period and the game ended with the Wings winning 5-1 and taking a 3-2 series lead.

For the Wings, overall it was a powerful performance. They finally got their special teams going and did it without much cost to their even strength play. An impressive win, for sure. Not so much by the Flames, obviously.