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Duck Hunting: Tatar Scores 3, Red Wings Down Ducks

Posted on by Josh Linneburg

The Wings took on the Ducks at Joe Louis Arena Saturday night hoping to win their first game over the course of this five game home stand. It’s been that bad. The Ducks, after starting the season 0-3-1, have quickly turned things around and entered this game with a 16-10-5 record.

Can we salvage at least one win on what’s been a disastrous home stand? I hope so.

1st Period

The Wings didn’t give up a goal in the first minute of this one. Progress! Frans Nielsen nearly opened the scoring with a sick drive to the net just about 2 minutes into the game but Jonathan Bernier got just enough of the puck to keep it out. Off the ensuing faceoff Thomas Vanek had the puck all alone below the faceoff dots but hit the crossbar. Not a bad start for our boys.

But immediately after, Xavier Ouellet took an interference penalty to put the Wings down a man. A good defensive play by DeKeyser on the backdoor kept Anaheim from converting just 10 seconds into the man advantage. But unfortunately on the next sequence the Ducks found an opening in the Red Wings defense for an easy tap-in goal on the backdoor, 1-0 Ducks.

Nice coverage there Green.

The Wings had a chance to even this one up on the powerplay right after Rakell’s goal but couldn’t get anything going. Even still, they came out and played pretty alright to start this one. Kronwall blew up Ondrej Kase with a big hit at center ice and then knocked Cogliano over after he came skating up to Kronwall seeking some sort of retribution.

Jonathan Ericsson’s roughing penalty in front of the net put the Ducks back on the powerplay and, just as you’d expect, they scored their second goal on just 5 shots. 2-0 Ducks.

Jeff Blashill challenged, saying the zone entry was offsides, but there was no conclusive video evidence to overturn the call on the ice and the goal stood.

So after not playing that bad but giving up 2 powerplay goals, how do the Wings respond? Well, Steve Ott and Cramarossa beat the hell out of each other for nearly a minute.

I guess that’s, well, something.

A few minutes later after some good offensive zone time, the Wings cut the Ducks lead in half when Tatar buried a rebound in front of the net for his first goal in forever. 2-1 Ducks with just 5 minutes left in the period. Good to see Tats make his way back onto the scoresheet, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

The Wings nearly tied the game after Mantha took the puck behind his back, skated into the offensive zone and sent a backhand attempt off the post. He continues to impress during his time in Detroit, you could make a good argument that he’s been Detroit’s best forward since being called up.

That’s how this one stood as we went to intermission. 2-1 Ducks after 1.

Shots (on goal)

DET: 25 (15)

ANA: 15 (10)

2nd Period

This one picked up right where we left off. A lot of hits, a lot of play in the corners and the Ducks taking advantage of every Red Wings mistake. 5 minutes into the frame the Ducks found themselves on a weird odd-man rush and sent the puck past Mrazek to restore their 2 goal lead. 3-1 Ducks.

Tatar got the Wings back into this game with one of the weirdest goals you’ll ever see. After coming down the right side, Tats’ shot went off Cam Fowler’s skate and then off the end boards. The puck then bounced back towards Bernier, went up his leg, off his arm and into the net to bring this game back within 1.

The Wings put a lot of pressure on the Ducks after that goal. Kronwall was cross-checked in the back by Nick Ritchie that the refs seemed to miss, which only added to the hostilities of the night. This one’s been chippy.

With just under 9 minutes left Petr Mrazek made the biggest save of the night on a Corey Perry chance right in front of the net. The Wings came right back down the ice and sent the puck to the front of the net where it hit Larkin’s skate and found its way into the net. The refs reviewed the call initially, where they ruled that Larkin did not kick the puck into the net. Carlyle then challenged the call, saying there was goaltender interference. The refs went back, took another look and determined the puck was already past Bernier when contact was made, we have a GOOD GOAL. 3-3 game!

We’ve got ourselves a hockey game here folks!

Just after, the Wings went back to the powerplay. Manson gave Vanek a big hug in front of the net and took a seat because of it. Larkin nearly put the Wings in front on a one-timer but he fanned on the shot. This would’ve been a great time for the powerplay to spring back to life, but it wasn’t meant to be.

As Mickey noted with about 3 minutes left in the 2nd period, this was the first time I’ve seen a competent and dangerous forecheck from this team in about 2 weeks. And they were rewarded for it with a great goal from Xavier Ouellet. Vanek sent the puck back to the point, Ouellet let a MONSTER one-timer go and just like that we had ourselves a 4-3 hockey game.

This was the first Wings lead of the home stand, if you can believe that.

After 2, the Red Wings lead 4-3.

Shots (on goal):

DET: 39 (21)

ANA: 33 (20)

3rd Period

John Gibson took over in net for the Ducks to start the 3rd. Just 90 seconds in and Hampus Lindholm nearly tied this game back up but his shot rung off the post and wide. He’s had a really good game offensively for the Ducks.

More forechecking pressure from the Wings resulted in a turnover deep in the Ducks zone. Anthony Mantha picked the puck off a Duck, sent it to Zetterberg who then passed to Tatar in front of the net. He fooled Gibson with a backhand-forehand deke, buried the rebound and completed his first career hat-trick to put the Wings up 5-3!

14 minutes left. 5-3 game. Livin’ on a Prayer jamming at The Joe. Things are alright with the world, at least they were.

Like I said earlier, the Ducks seemed to capitalize on every Red Wings mistake early on in the game. That didn’t change in the 3rd period. DeKeyser’s pass out of the defensive zone was picked off at center ice, Rickard Rakell brought the puck back in and cut the Wings lead in half with 13 minutes left to play. Still 5-4 Wings.

Rakell is really good. Danny DeKeyser is not.

With 10 minutes left, the Wings found twine once again and it was all set up by none other than Thomas Vanek. Frans Nielsen buried the puck in front of the net, and just like that the 2 goal lead was restored with the clock ticking away in the 3rd period. 6-4 Wings.

Immediately following the goal, Rakell had the opportunity to complete his hat-trick but Mrazek kept the puck out. As the clock started to wind down and the Wings stayed out in front, the crowd at Joe Louis Arena continued to provide a boost to the Wings. This was an energetic as I’ve heard a crowd at The Joe in quite a while.

The Wings closed this one out without much incident, this was a good win for a desperate Wings team. If they have any postseason aspirations, wins like this need to start rolling in soon. Gotta think Steve Ott’s fight early in the game was the difference-maker tonight. What great value he provides.

If that statistic doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.

Enjoy it for tonight Hockeytown, we play 10 of our next 11 on the road!

Shots (on goal):

DET: 56 (32)

ANA: 43 (25)

Final score: 6-4 Red Wings

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