Red Wings get jump on Penguins

May 30, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Can anything stop the Red Wings? Apparently, the defending champs won’t let injuries to key players affect them. Again minus Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper, they didn’t miss a beat posting a 3-1 win over Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in Game One tonight at The Joe.

Following a 1-1 first in which Brad Stuart and Ruslan Fedotenko traded ugly goals less than five minutes apart, Chris Osgood took over coming up with large saves including a flat out denial on Evgeni Malkin, who earned a breakaway after hooking down a Wing in front of the stripes. The missed call led to the super skilled Russian breaking away from the pack coming from center ice on Osgood but the veteran got a glove on it keeping the game deadlocked. He finished with 31 saves going 25-for-25 the final 40 minutes.

After a slow start to the second in which the Pens got five of the first six shots including Malkin’s great chance, the Wings came on outshooting Pitt 10-8 the rest of the period. That included the deciding goal in the final minute when Johan Franzen banked one off Marc-Andre Fleury for his 11th this postseason. Prior to the goal, Detroit had just finished a dominant shift forcing a tired Crosby unit to ice the puck. Even Dan Bylsma’s timeout couldn’t prevent Henrik Zetterberg, Brian Rafalski and Franzen from combining on the winner. Zetterberg fed Rafalski, who sent a puck just wide but Franzen got to it wisely flipping a backhand off Fleury and in.

Early in the third, a couple of unlikely sources worked together for a key insurance marker. Perhaps in Detroit’s case where everyone contributes, it wasn’t such a stunner that Justin Abdelkader followed up his first of the postseason with Ville Leino assisting. A game removed from Darren Helm finishing off the Blackhawks, here were two more rookies starring while defensive leader Nick Lidstrom quietly played well in his return to the lineup as did rookie Jonathan Ericsson.

That’s the Red Wings in a nutshell. It doesn’t matter how many kids play because they all find ways to step up. Now, Crosby, Malkin and the rest of their teammates know just how tough it’s going to be wrestle Lord Stanley away from Hockey Town.

If that weren’t enough, they saw familiar face Marian Hossa burst through a few times in the third generating opportunities. He also had an awesome shift with less than two minutes left after Fleury went to the bench for an extra skater. Even though he didn’t ice it with an empty netter, Hossa made all the right defensive plays including keeping the puck instead of forcing a bad angle shot which might’ve given the Pens a chance. Very smart.

Detroit also dominated in the faceoff circle winning a ridiculous 39 draws to only 16. Crosby lost eight of 14 while Zetterberg went a dominant 15-5. Helm was equally impressive winning 11 of 15 while Jordan Staal lost 13 of 19. The lack of puck possession along with that bad four minute stretch spanning the end of the second and third tilted the game in the Wings’ favor- forcing the Pens to play catch up.

And so, the first game went to the champs with a quick turnaround on NBC tomorrow night. Will playing less than 24 hours later help the Pens forget Game 1 or can the Wings build on their momentum?

Tune in tomorrow. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel!

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Justin Abdelkader, Det (1st of postseason at 2:46 3rd, 2 SOG, 2 hits, 4-1 faceoffs, +1 in 9 shifts-5:10)

2nd Star-Johan Franzen, Det (GWG at 19:02 2nd, 11th of playoffs, 2 SOG, 3 hits, takeaway, +1 in 17:10)

1st Star-Chris Osgood, Det (31 saves incl. 25 final 2 periods)