With the Red Wings knotting the series up at two games apiece, the series now comes down to who can win two of the last three. There’s the home ice advantage for the Coyotes in this now three game series but Detroit won’t be thinking about being the road team at all. Getting back to the way they play the game is the most important thing for the Red Wings right now and they’re slowly starting to turn the wheels.
Franzen is heating up (point in every game), Datsyuk’s coming to life, the defense has clamped down, and Henrik Zetterberg is putting together yet another great postseason with a league leading 5 playoff goals. Add in the mountain of confidence Jimmy Howard got from the shutout last night and the Wings are a team flying high, even in a 2-2 series.
Things are starting to come together for the team and it’s paying off. I’m not ready to make the statement that they’ll easily win two of the next three because of the way they’ve done this at points in the season: get really hot and then ice cold for a game or two. But as the top guys start clicking and guys like Todd Bertuzzi start to get involved with assists (he has four) and the like, the team is looking like the dangerous one we know they can be.
Detroit out shot Phoenix 35-29 in Game 4 and has done so in 3 of the 4 games with Game 3 being the one in which they didn’t (and we know how that worked out).The key for the Red Wings success has been keeping the pressure on Bryzgalov and limiting the break out plays for the Coyotes to a handful. They’ve started to key in on the Coyotes offense and forced numerous shots to be taken wide in Game 4.
If the Red Wings go on to win this series, you can look at the 5-on-3 power play for the Coyotes that the Red Wings were able to kill off. Phoenix could have very easily gone up 2-1 or just tied it at 1-1. Instead, the Red Wings killed off the penalties and scored shortly thereafter.
Detroit needs to carry that momentum into the next game in Phoenix and turn the loud homecrowd into a silent, stunned one. Red Wings have the Coyotes right where they want them, regardless of Shane Doan being in or out of the line-up. They’ve got the Phoenix players working too hard and they are forcing turnovers or forcing players to be out of position.
Continue that pressure and don’t look back.
Now that the series is even, who will take two of the last three games?
| Detroit | 810 |
| Phoenix | 56 |
