Howard's 46 Saves Not Enough: Wings Lose 2-1 In Shootout

by joehass on Jan 31, 2010 4:59 PM CST in Game Recaps

You can look at the outcome of Sunday's matinee against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a couple ways:

The Red Wings took on one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference and managed to ride a blisteringly hot goaltender in Jimmy Howard (who made 46 saves) to earn a needed point.

The Red Wings laid one of the bigger eggs of the season, netting only 11 shots in the first two periods, and only by the grace of a Brad Stuart shot that glanced off Dan Cleary and banked in did they get a most undeserved point.

In either case, it was a pair of goals by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in the shootout that topped off Crosby's goal in regulation and gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a 2-1 win at Mellon Arena.

The Red Wings were held to 23 shots in the game, 12 of them coming in the third period and a frantic overtime period. Seemingly unable to get their offense going in the first two periods, the Red Wings finally managed to come alive late, punctuated by the tying goal with 8:50 left in the third period.

The Red Wings finished 0-for-5 on the power play, while Pittsburgh was 0-for-3.

Pittsburgh opened the scoring as Crosby skated across the Alex Gligoski skated toward the left hand side just across the blue line, then passed the puck across to a full-speed Crosby. Howard went down quickly, but Crosby waited just one more moment and put the puck off the post for his 34th of the season. Malkin picked up the second assist.

In the third, Henrik Zetterberg found the puck behind the net and passed it along the far-side boards to Stuart. Stuart's slap shot from the blue line deflected off Cleary, who was screening Marc-Andre Fleury. Cleary picked up his 11th goal of the year.

In the shootout, Pavel Datsyuk shot wide and Jason Williams's shot was handled by Fleury, while, after Kris Letang's shot was handled by Howard, Crosby and Malkin put their pucks into the back of the net to seal the deal.

The Wings head to San Jose on Tuesday to take on the Sharks.

Player of the game: All our commenters. We had a blast putting on our Hockeytown for Haiti event, and want to thank everyone to was a part of it.

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Comments

look on the bright side

IF we make the playoffs, thats an IF, atleast we wont have to go to a shootout. if there is one aspect in howards game that is a weakness. the shootout is a main one.

sad we couldnt pull this one out though with howard having back to back amazing games.

i wish i could have been there for the game thread though. i swear i work every day the wings play.

by dhall25 on Jan 31, 2010 5:59 PM CST reply actions

Seriously, yes.

They are incredibly stressful, even if we win, and we never seem to score, which of course makes that winning part kind of hard…

by jennbikegirl on Jan 31, 2010 6:56 PM CST up reply actions

but SO r part of regular season games

what i really dont get is how we have dats (god) and still manage to lose all these shootouts. hes converting above 50% career and insanely good this year (dont no the actual % but would venture a guess around 65)

by hyeh81 on Jan 31, 2010 9:48 PM CST up reply actions

yeah but for the most part we need moe than one shootout goal

and it seems like other then dats and occasionally bertuzzi no one else is making them, nor is howard stopping them

by dhall25 on Jan 31, 2010 10:10 PM CST up reply actions

I totally disagree about Howard. He is actually pretty decent in the SO. He’s 20 for 30 this season. Not bad for a rookie and every time he gives the team a chance to win. The only problem with the Wing’s in the SO is their lack of scoring. Datsyuk is the ONLY one that consistently scores going 6 for 9. Zetterberg is just plain awful in the SO. 2 for 9 this season and hanging around or just below 33% for his career. Not good enough for someone in the top 3 shooters every SO. It’s time Flip got a regular chance. The Wings should get better with Willy in the lineup, but Z should not be in the top three. Bertuzzi, Flip, Willy, Datsyuk and Franzen (soon) all should go before Z in the shootout. I think even Homer would be better. He has very good hands in close.

Another problem is putting Cleary as #4. Cleary does the SAME thing every time. 5-hole. I’ve never seen him try anything else.

by dewman8810 on Feb 1, 2010 9:09 AM CST up reply actions

i still think if there is a weakness in howard it will be the shootout

he has done decent ill give you that, but when he went up against teams with multiple skill players we lost.

he was 1-4 against chicago and 1-3 against pitt. but when he did decent in a shootout it was our skill players that failed, against dallas 9 rounds and against the wild 8 rounds, we won that game though but it took 8 rounds. but still its not like those teams have ridiculous skill players, i think toskala could have probably stopped most of those.

dont get me wrong i think in time he will get better, he is still young and going up against the kanes, toews, crosbys, malkins, etc isnt easy. they can make any goalie look stupid.

by dhall25 on Feb 1, 2010 10:00 AM CST up reply actions

TOSKALA????

your joking right ? Thats such an insult….do you really think Howard is that bad in a shootout?

by GOLDIGGAH on Feb 1, 2010 2:23 PM CST up reply actions

hahaha

no it was a joke. i know how bad toskala is. if anything its an insult to the shooters

by dhall25 on Feb 1, 2010 3:36 PM CST up reply actions

I'm glad they didn't get blown out

And hopeful that Kronwall isn’t seriously hurt.

It was fun to have so many people from other blogs around commenting – like a party with different guests than the usual circle, more interesting and thought-provoking. :)

"While there's life, there's hope." --Cicero

by Baroque on Jan 31, 2010 6:23 PM CST reply actions

Good news so far

Khan(!) said Kronwall was OK. I know we’ve heard that before, but at least it’s hopeful.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2010/01/red_wings_johan_franzen_expect_1.html

by jennbikegirl on Jan 31, 2010 6:58 PM CST up reply actions

Eww.

I was watchin with DVR and paused the replay of that hit and his knee had bent pretty bad in a way it’s not supposed to. I really hope he’s ok but i won’t be convinced until he plays again at a Kronwall level. It’s the season of injuries so nothing would surprise me at this point.

by pzar11 on Feb 1, 2010 8:08 AM CST up reply actions

I hope is is just hurt enough not to play in the olympics

same with franzen lol

by GOLDIGGAH on Feb 1, 2010 2:24 PM CST up reply actions

fun indeed

one of the best game threads WIM’s had

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Jan 31, 2010 7:35 PM CST up reply actions

I know we’re supposed to be all for the Wings and everything, but I can’t help admire Malkin’s shootout goal. That was beautiful.

by Apocalyptic0n3 on Jan 31, 2010 6:52 PM CST reply actions

Beautiful? I wouldn’t say that. Patient, yes. Beautiful, no. Howard would have totally had that if he were a foot taller. Damn short Wings goaltenders…

by bleep bloop on Jan 31, 2010 7:21 PM CST up reply actions

Yea..

I actually considered it almost a weak goal. just pure patience waiting on a goalie error.

by bond021 on Feb 1, 2010 8:30 AM CST up reply actions

weak goal?

that was a sweet goal

by GOLDIGGAH on Feb 1, 2010 2:25 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs

riding Howard

The wings can’t continue to ride their rookie goaltender while poor defense and no offense gives more points to their opponents. It is time for the forwards to understand that scoring equals wins. One or two goals per game can’t win for them when they are giving up four or five.

by Max A on Feb 1, 2010 9:56 PM CST reply actions