First Period:
After the Penguins came out hard in the first minute, Gustav Nyquist was held/tripped/hooked at the side of the net as he fought for a loose puck to the left of Marc-Andre Fleury. Somehow there was no call, but that seemed to be the early standard as Anthony Mantha got away with a hook as his own. The kid also had a great backcheck on notorious giant baby Kris Letang a little later on.
Brad Richards took a Jonathan Ericsson tip and got it ahead to a streaking Andreas Athanasiou fresh off the bench, and Double A got in alone on Fleury and ripped a shot into the back of the net. That’s AA’s 6th goal at 5-on-5 this season, eighth-most on the team and tied with Pavel Datsyuk. Not a bad player to tie something with, especially when you consider Athanasiou’s usage.
The refs finally regurgitated their whistles to make a call when Henrik Zetterberg was hooked by Carl Hagelin. The power play took forever to actually gain the zone and stay there, and weren’t able to generate very much for chances. Mrazek had a couple of great saves from Justin Schultz and then Nick Bonino at the side of the net.
Shots: 12-9 Penguins
Score: 1-0 Red Wings
Standout Players: Athanasiou, Datsyuk, Nyquist, Quincey, Mantha, Mrazek
Tough Period: Kronwall, Helm
Second Period:
I’d like a re-do on the start of the second period. The Penguins scored twenty seconds in when the puck banked in off the rear end of Petr Mrazek on what could have very easily been called icing. A replay at the red line showed the toe of Kunitz’s stick maybe breaking the plane of center. Oh well. Bad bounce. Tie game.
Penguins went to the power play just over three minutes in. Giant baby Kris Letang got it through Mrazek’s legs just over a minute later. It took the Wings a while to seem to be able to even get the puck back on their sticks. Athanasiou had a great pass across the Penguins zone with Nyquist mostly left alone on the right side, but the puck bounced off the heel of Goose’s stick, and the follow-up shot by Quincey was blocked.
Pavel Datsyuk’s second period got worse when a Carl Hagelin shot hit him in the shoulder and got past Mrazek. Then the Penguins went back to the power play as Justin Abdelkader and Ben Lovejoy each knocked each other down in front of the net, but only the Red Wing got called. AA and Riley Sheahan had a 2-on-1 on the PK, but Athanasiou didn’t get the initial pass cleanly and Sheahan’s shot went over the net. What could have been…
Well, the answer is it could have been a 3-2 game instead of 4-1, because Phil Kessel rocketed the puck off the far post and in 56 seconds later. Mrazek got the yank, sending birthday boy Jimmy Howard in to backstop the comeback. Datsyuk nearly cut the lead to two as he dangled into a poke check by Fleury. Coming back down the other way, Datsyuk collided with Kunitz, leaving the Penguins forward injured and Datsyuk in the box for “interference.” The so-called penalty ended without consequence and the Wings escaped the period without giving up another PP goal.
Shots: 27-19 Penguins
Score: 4-1 Penguins
Standout Players: Nobody
Tough Period: Datsyuk, Mrazek, Abdelkader, Jiri Slegr, Brett Lebda, Ian White, Anders Eriksson, Maxim Kuznetsov, Andreas Lilja, Adam Oates, Ted Mosby, Paws
Third Period:
Time for a comeback. Let’s go.
Tom Kuhnhackl was looking for a fifth Pittsburgh goal when he rang the puck off the crossbar. The Wings got a second power play opportunity when Nyquist finally drew a call on a blatant trip along the boards. After a bunch of passes along the perimeter, Mike Green finally got the puck toward the net, and… it… went in? A couple of weird bounces off Pittsburgh defensemen bounced the puck in over Fleury’s pad.
Eric Fehr ended up getting another rebound after a Tomas Tatar turnover at center ice to put the Pens up 5-2. I’m not saying the comeback’s dead, but it sure got tougher with that goal. And then with the sixth goal. Um, let’s just pretend the game ended right there, because I know very few of you stuck around to watch the end of this thing.
Another Pens power play as Danny DeKeyser took out Bryan Rust.
Four-on-four.
Richards tripping penalty.
Penguins goal.
Oh look, the game’s finally over.
Shots: 41-23 Penguins
Score: 7-2 Penguins
Standout Players: Justin Upton, Ty Collins, Justin Verlander
Tough Period: Everyone watching this game
Final Thoughts:
- No
- Also no
- The Wings made me sad
- Super duper no/
