The Red Wings will head back to Detroit on Friday looking to stay alive in their series with the Ducks after dropping an overtime decision to the Ducks on Wednesday. The Wings had two leads but couldn’t extend or hold onto them and ended up dropping it. Ultimately, I thought the Ducks played a better game though.
This was a pretty standard playoff-reffed game. The standard was consistent and the refs didn’t inject themselves into the game. Detroit squandered a five-minute power play opportunity and immediately allowed the Ducks’ 2nd goal when the clock ticked over to a Ducks’ power play. This was a major swing and as much as I hate to do it, Ryan Getzlaf deserves a ton of credit for the turn of events there.
CSSI Methodology Explanation here
Goalie Ratings
This was quite the goaltenders’ duel. Both netminders kept this one close as if one had faltered, things could have gotten out of hand easily. Howard gave up one more goal, but had a higher save percentage thanks to the Wings being outshot and outchanced. I’m going to give Howard a +1 overall rating, but the head-to-head will be even.
The Goals
1st Period 05:28 – Detroit Goal (PP): Johan Franzen (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Damien Brunner
The Wings get a PP goal early on their second chance of the game. Zetterberg shakes off some heavy pressure in the low corner and gets it to Franzen with a bit of room at the sharp angle. Franzen tries to go to Datsyuk on the back door, but it bounces in on Hiller, who makes the initial stop. Franzen gets his stick on the loose puck in the crease and slides it under Hiller. Zetterberg will get a plus on this play for much of the work which creates the space that leads to this goal.
1st Period 17:41 – Anaheim Goal: Kyle Palmieri (wrist shot) from David Steckel
The Ducks pull even on their 17th shot of the first period as Steckel wins a faceoff back to Palmieri. Eaves goes out to attack, but Palmieri spins and chucks the puck on net. The biscuit sneaks through a mass of bodies in front of Howard and into the net. Emmerton is going to pull an extra minus for losing the faceoff cleanly in his own end. Bertuzzi is the only minus cleared. He’s the only one who neither lost the faceoff nor helped get involved in a screen of his own goaltender.
2nd Period 10:08 – Detroit Goal: Mikael Samuelsson (wrist shot) from Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk
The Wings pull ahead as Datsyuk gets tripped up making an outlet pass to Z. Hank fires low to the far post to create a Hiller kick rebound that Samuelsson is there to collect and toss over his pad. Bonus half-plus to Datsyuk on the good work to clear the zone despite being tripped. No other adjustment.
2nd Period 19:28 – Anaheim Goal (PP): Ryan Getzlaf (wrist shot) from Francois Beauchemin and Sheldon Souray
After the Ducks kill off enough of the major penalty, they get a power play opportunity late in the period that Getzlaf scores on after being given the blue line with speed. The Ducks’ captain walks it to the slot and rips a wrister over Howard to tie it. This one is going to be mostly on Andersson, who picks up a minus. The problem is created when the Ducks enter the zone three wide. Beleskey drives center-left lane to tie up Ericsson. Getzlaf is in the middle just behind Beleskey while Perry is streaking in on the right wing. Andersson stops skating with both Perry and Getzlaf behind him, turning this into a 3-on-2 rush. Kronwall is forced to respect the passing lane to Perry, which gives Getzlaf room to get to a great shooting area. If Andersson moves aggressively after Perry, he frees Kronwall to attack Getzlaf before he can get a shot off.
Overtime 01:54 – Anaheim Goal: Nick Bonino (wrist shot) from Ben Lovejoy
The Ducks net the OT game winner with good in-zone pressure which leads Lovejoy off the boards with room to make a pass to Bonino on the back door. Bonino wastes no time in hitting the open net for the winner. Extra minus for Kindl for a few plays where he simply can’t handle Selanne. He gets held in the corner just prior to the goal being scored, but that’s not factored in here. There are two other chances he has where he can’t get it past Selanne. Andersson will get a coverage minus. With Kindl covering the net-front, Andersson has to be on the back door and he lets the pass get right through him. Nyquist will get a half-minus. He chases Lovejoy down on a cross-ice pass, but tries to separate him from the puck cleanly & can’t. He’s either got to get the puck or get his man on this play, it can’t be neither. Lashoff will get a half-minus for the exact same thing as Nyquist, as Lovejoy dekes around him to get room to make the pass. Brunner will have his minus cleared. This entire series he’s in good position.
Penalty Adjustments (pluses and minuses only)
1st Period 07:57 – Johan Franzen (boarding): Mule hits Bryan Allen in the numbers deep in the Ducks’ zone and goes to the box for the boarding. Minus for Franzen.
1st Period 09:35 – Cory Emmerton (high-sticking): Emmerton gets a minus here. He’s doing some aggressive PK work on Getzlaf at the half-boards, but gets too aggressive and loses control of his stick, popping Getzlaf’s hair clean off his head in the process.
2nd Period 18:26 – Brendan Smith (holding): Smith gets a minus as he loses the line on the power play and holds up Getzlaf to prevent a breakaway opportunity. I’m going to give Eaves a minus here too. He makes an unnecessarily dangerous play at the blue line to allow the Anaheim PKers to pressure high and create this situation.
Bonus Ratings
-1.5 to Brian Lashoff, -1 to Jakub Kindl: These two were quite shaky in this game and created too many chances for the Ducks’ forecheckers.
-1 to Henrik Zetterberg: Despite having two points in this game, Z was unimpressive. he’s got to do better.
+1 to Kyle Quincey: Q shut down Selanne very effectively and even got a TWO shots through! Kidding aside, Quincey did better than merely not suck. He was actually quite good.
Honorable Mentions:
Filppula was fairly quiet in this one, but that’s not actually a bad thing. At 5-on-5, he spent a shitload of time playing against the Ducks’ top line and he did a decent enough job at that role. I lean slightly more negative on him, but not nearly enough to give him an adjustment.
