Wings Post-Game: No Brotherly Love For Red Wings

After a 4-1 beating on home ice on Friday night, the Red Wings had Saturday to lick their wounds and prepare themselves for the bounceback game. The red hot Philadelphia Flyers coasted into Detroit on an eight game win streak and an 8-2-0 record in their last ten games. In the thick of the playoff mix, the Flyers were looking to climb out of their wild card spot and into division spot. The Red Wings were looking to close the gap between themselves and the Boston Bruins. They were an important two points for both teams.

 

The Wings wasted no time getting to know the NHL’s top powerplay as Zetterberg took an interference penalty less than two minutes into the game. The team killed it off, though, and managed to kill off one more at the end of the period. They escaped the period with a 0-0 tie, but trailed the Flyers in shots 10-5.

The second period saw both teams taking penalties, but still being held off the scoreboard. The Red Wings started strong, dominating the play in the Flyers zone. Unfortunately, the team was having a hard time finding any net at all. They only recorded eleven shots on goal (the Flyers had twelve), but had nineteen shot attempts. The Flyers did a good job of boxing them out and blocking their shots.

The Red Wings opened the third period by scoring a goal! Unfortunately, it was disallowed because the net was pushed off. The third was back-and-forth and both teams peppered shots on the goalies. Athanasiou had a breakaway opportunity but was stoned by Stolarz. Voracek got a one-timer off but Howard turned him away. The highlight of the period was easily rookie defenseman Xavier Ouellet dropping the gloves in defence of his teammate.

This was the hit by Michael Raffl on Steve Ott that started the whole thing. Ouellet didn’t take kindly to it, so he quickly made Raffl pay for it.

Ouellet got the instigator penalty so the Flyers got a powerplay out of the whole thing. The Red Wings managed to kill it off and close out the period scoreless still. It was a better period for the Wings, though, as they outshot the Flyers 11-7.

It was time for the exhilarating 3-on-3 overtime period. The Flyers controlled most of the play through the extra time, which led to the winning goal by Brayden Schenn on a 3-on-1 at 2:43.

The Wings had quite a few strong sequences throughout the game. They just couldn’t bury any. Mickey Redmond accurately pointed out that they were getting no puck luck, but sometimes you have to make your own luck too. They couldn’t score a goal on a twenty-two year old goalie who was playing in his second ever NHL game. Instead, they gave him his first career shutout.

They really had no business being on the ice for that overtime period, though. Look at the Flyers spice at the end there. They were bound to score one sooner or later.

 

Today’s Motor City MVP is Jimmy Howard who played his first full game in over two weeks. He turned away 34 Flyers shots and registered a .971 save percentage, proving the start to his season was no fluke. He really is playing out of his mind.

 

 

In the thick of a five game homestand, the Red Wings will host the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. Puck drop is at 7PM and you can catch all the action on FS-D. As always, Brock Seguin will have the game preview up on wingsnation.com Tuesday morning.