Leelanau Sports Guy’s World at sportspig.com

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings broke a 1-1 tie in the third period to go on to a 4-1 win and take a 3-2 lead in the series.

Drew Miller was first on the board tonight with a goal that was kicked in by Phoenix’s Vernon Fiddler. Ed Jovanovski tied the game during the second. In the third, Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk scored two quick goals before Henrik Zetterberg scored an empty netter to finish the night.

The Red Wings played 40 solid minutes of hockey tonight. They were outplayed during the second period but were bailed out by Jimmy Howard, who played a great game tonight. Detroit just dominated play in the first and third periods. Nicklas Lidstrom was on the ice for all four goals scored by Detroit. Today Lidstrom was not announced as a finalist for the Norris Trophy for just the second time since 1997.

In Play! Man of the Game: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk won the face-off that lead to Holmstrom’s goal and netted his own shortly afterwards. He also recorded stats in every column on the sheet today except he failed to record a hit or giveaway.

DUCHENE, HOWARD AND MYERS NAMED CALDER TROPHY FINALISTS

NEW YORK (April 22, 2010) — Center Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche, goaltender Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings and defenseman Tyler Myers of the Buffalo Sabres are the three finalists for the 2009-10 Calder Trophy, awarded “to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition,” the National Hockey League announced today.

More here…

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings rallied back from an early no-goal call to tie the series with the Phoenix Coyotes 2-2 moving back to the desert on Friday.

Henrik Zetterberg opened the column tonight with a powerplay deflection. Pavel Datsyuk drove that lead further late in the third with the second goal of the night before Zetterberg buried the hatchet into Phoenix with his second of the night just 25 seconds later.

Detroit not just opened the door to the Coyotes net tonight, they kept their penalty box busy, giving the Coyotes five power plays and stopping them all. Jimmy Howard controlled his rebounds tonight but made a rallying save on a rare rebound despite losing his mask. The absence of Shane Doan, Phoenix’s captain, from this game played a huge part, allowing the Wings to take better control of the puck around the boards and allowed Detroit to dominate the physical play, out hitting the Coyotes 43-27.

In Play! Man of the Game: Jimmy Howard. Howard stopped all 29 of the Coyotes shots and recorded his first career playoff shutout.

Post game audio from both teams.

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings have lost the opening game of the playoffs, falling 3-2 to the Phoenix Coyotes.

Tomas Holmstrom scored first tonight, but quickly that lead was equalized by Keith Yandle. Late in the first period Nicklas Lidstrom scored to put Detroit to a lead again. In the second, Wojtek Wolski tied the game before Derek Morris game Phoenix the game winner in the third.

This game was down the wire through two, but was all Phoenix in the third. Phoenix just outworked Detroit in the final stanza and took over the game. Detroit was a train wreck today on the penalty kill, giving up goals on all of the first three times shorthanded. Tonight there were issues with consistency on penalty calling. While Phoenix accumulated more penalties than Detroit, the game winning goal was scored because of interference that was worse than the interference that had put Phoenix on the man advantage. Phoenix also wasn’t penalized when Lidstrom was high sticked while handling the puck midway through the third. That lack of a call cost Detroit a four minute powerplay as well as cost them the use of Lidstrom for roughly a quarter of the period.

In Play! Man of the Game: Derek Morris. Morris finished the game with three points (2 assists and the game winning goal) as well as a blocked shot and one of Phoenix’s 43 hits.

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

Every year there is a debate about who should win the Jack Adams award – awarded to the best coach of the year in the NHL – and this year two likely candidates, Dave Tippett and Mike Babcock, will get to face off in the opening round of the playoffs.

Phoenix’s Dave Tippett isn’t just a front runner for the nomination – he’s been considered the likely winner of the award since the Olympic break. Tippett has taken a team that, in the beginning of the year, wasn’t even sure if they’d be in the desert or if they’d be in Ontario and coached them to the playoffs. Most professional teams that are adrift in the front office don’t stand a chance in the standings. Take for instance, the Coyotes. Phoenix had the same front office issues last season but under the coaching of Wayne Gretzky finished 25th in the NHL and missed the playoffs. Tippet took over the team and finished 4th in the league this season.

Mike Babcock isn’t a stranger to the playoffs. He took Anaheim there and has never missed the playoffs since taking the job in Detroit. This year he had something to deal with that he had never faced on such a large scale. Injuries. For most of December and all of January and February, Babcock was missing eight of his top players to injury. That’s one player short of half the roster if you don’t count the goalies. In fact, it wasn’t unusual to hear the chant, “Let’s go Griffins” in the Joe Louis Arena this year (the Griffins are Detroit’s minor league team). Detroit broke 300 Man Games Lost from injuries in early March. Only Philadelphia, Colorado, and Vancouver made the playoffs with more man games lost to injury. However, all of those teams suffered more regular intervals of injuries and never saw more than three or four major players injured at one time.

Whether both of these coaches end up in the running or not, this opening round series isn’t just about which team will move on to the conference semi-finals, it could be an important factor in the decision of who will have the bragging rights behind the bench next season.

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings overcame the Columbus Blue Jackets to win 4-3 with a goal filled two minute exchange to push their streak of consecutive 100 point seasons to 10 to a real possibility.

Niklas Kronwall scored first tonight but quickly that lead was snubbed out by a rare Nicklas Lidstrom turnover that RJ Umberger stuffed past Jimmy Howard. Just before the end of the first, Samuel Pahlsson put Columbus up to a one goal lead. The game stayed this way until a 76 second period in the third in which Tomas Holmstrom scored twice and Dan Cleary followed with one of his own. Columbus cut the lead to one with a goal by Mike Blunden but couldn’t tie the game.

Detroit came out to a rough game and set the stage for a train wreck early in the second before turning their game around in the third. Columbus took themselves out of this game late when they spent more time arguing about a penalty call than defending the powerplay. They then took a pair of misconduct penalties and set Detroit up for the three goals in just over a minute. Dan Cleary played possibly his best game of the season today.

In Play! Man of the Game: Tomas Holmstrom. Holmstrom deflected both late powerplay goals and played a great game in front of the net.

ADDED BONUS:
Post game interviews with Lidstrom, Holmstrom, Eaves, Howard and Babcock.

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

In a defining game in the battle within playoff rankings the Detroit Red Wings lost 4-3 to the Nashville Predators in overtime today.

Brian Rafalski broke open the score sheet today scoring the lone goal of the first period. Shea Weber tied the game in the second and Martin Erat gave Nashville a one goal edge before Nicklas Lidstrom tied the game again. Just before the end of the second, J P Dumont put Nashville up by a goal again. Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk scored the tying goal late in the third to force overtime before Ryan Sutter scored the game winner just 16 seconds into overtime.

Detroit played a rough first half of the first and didn’t look great during the second period either. Again they put themselves into a bad situation in overtime and lost the game. Today wasn’t the best game by Jimmy Howard, who will not start tomorrow for the first time in 25 games. Chris Osgood will start tomorrow in Philadelphia and today’s loss leaves Detroit in the possibility of falling back to seventh place in he standings.

In Play! Man of the Game: Tomas Holmstrom. Holmstrom was the only player to amass three points in the game, all of which came from assists.

Post game audio

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

In the first of three meetings between Columbus and Detroit in the next week, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Blue Jackets 3-2 to pull only three points shy of guaranteeing a spot in the playoffs.

Tomas Holmstrom scored the opener tonight, but Columbus’ Andrew Murray tied the game up after the first period. Pavel Datsyuk gave Detroit another lead in the second and Todd Bertuzzi extended that lead early in the third. The final goal of the game was scored late by Columbus’ RJ Umberger.

Detroit didn’t play a great game through the first twenty minutes, but came back and took control of most of the game afterwards. Detroit scored an additional goal tonight but the goal was taken away because Todd Bertuzzi spiked the puck out of the air and into the net with his hands. While the goal didn’t count, it did cause some laughs on both Columbus’ and Detroit’s benches. Tonight marked Detroit’s seventh consecutive win.

In Play! Man of the Game: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk scored a great goal, plus had an assist and on more than one occasion turned the Blue Jacket’s defensemen inside out with his stick work.

Post game audio from the dressing room here…

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

Despite giving up a quick goal to St. Louis, the Detroit Red Wings came back and took control of the game, beating the St. Louis Blues 4-2.

Paul Kariya scored first tonight with a breakaway. Then in the second, Henrik Zetterberg scored just 26 seconds into the period, followed four minutes later by Todd Bertuzzi. Jay McClement tied the game early in the third, but Valtteri Filppula came back with a pair of goals to give the Wings the win.

Detroit easily could have been down by five goals after the first period because the Blues kept feeding breakaway after breakaway. Jimmy Howard has huge tonight in net, making 30 saves to record win number 30 of the season. Howard is still making his case for the Calder Trophy. Last year Steve Mason, another goalie, won the trophy and recorded 33 wins and 10 shutouts. While Howard only has one shutout, he is one of the players in the running. Detroit hasn’t seen a Calder Trophy since the 1950’s.

In Play! Men of the Game: Zetterberg, Filppula, and Bertuzzi. This line has combined for 20 points in the last three games including several multi-goal nights from Zetterberg and Filppula.

ADDED BONUS:
AJ Petronzi talks with RED HOT Henrik Zetterberg and Mike Babcock in post game inteview.

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings gave up a two goal lead, but still managed a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabers in overtime.

Pavel Datsyuk scored only two minutes into the game tonight and Patrick Eaves followed suit less than two minutes later. Before the halfway point of the first period, Buffalo’s Jochen Hecht scored to make it a one goal game. In the second, Hecht tied the game. Nothing changed until 31 seconds into overtime when Brian Rafalski scored the game winner on the powerplay.

Detroit’s powerplay has goals in nine consecutive games, which ties them for the season best with Washington, and Detroit’s penalty kill hasn’t allowed a goal in five games, allowing only five goals in the last 46 times the Wings have been shorthanded. Detroit seems to be getting everything back in line after a season long struggle with injuries. Tonight’s win leaves Detroit in eighth in the conference behind Calgary, who has a tough game against Vancouver tomorrow before meeting the Wings on Monday.

In Play! Man of the Game: Brian Rafalski. Rafalski lead all players in minutes played, with just short of 26, and netted the game winning goal. He also had 6 attempted shots, four of which were on net.

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings spent their entire first shift tonight in the Minnesota Wild’s zone, something that never really changed in this crushing 5-1 victory in Detroit.

It didn’t take long for Johan Franzen to crack tonight’s score sheet open, scoring a goal less than two and a half minutes into the game. Later in the first period, Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg scored goals, both less than a minute apart. Minnesota then scored with only seconds left. In the second, Drew Miller netted his first career short-handed goal, followed in the third by Franzen’s second goal of the night.

Detroit had a lot of questions to answer after Tuesday, no one facing more than Zetterberg who played possibly the worst game of his career. The Wings came back and answered those questions tonight. Other than the top line, the bottom three lines got shuffled and that seemed to have solved quite a few problems.

Photo by Jack Rosenberg / In Play! Magazine

In Play! Man of the Game: Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg played an excellent game, seeing time tonight on all four lines and scoring a goal and two assists.