January 27, 2015

Strong Second Period & Third Line Power Wings to a Win

Coming back from the All-Star break the Red Wings showed some rust against the perpetual pain in our side that is the Florida Panthers. After falling behind early, the third line of Weiss, Sheahan and Glendening added 3 goals to give a lead that Mrazek would preserve to earn the win. Thanks to the current 6 game winning streak the Red Wings now sit atop the Atlantic division and look to be in excellent shape as teams begin to battle for playoff positioning.


While the Panthers controlled play early thanks to their neutral zone positioning the Red Wings matched the Panthers by keeping Florida’s shots to the outside. Unfortunately, the extended defensive zone time eventually caught up to the Wings as DeKeyser was sent to the box for delay of game. While shorthanded, an odd bounce and an attempted clear by Ericsson gave Miller a breakaway that he would cash in to put the Wings up early. The lead would be short lived however as Qunicey would get called for slashing sending the Panthers to a 5-3 PP where a beautiful cross crease pass gave Barkov an empty net. Still on the PP, Pirri would find himself alone on the faceoff dot and he blasted a shot through Mrazek to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead. The Wings started to play better after the penalties, controlling possession for the remainder of the period but were still forced to accept the 2-1 deficit going into the 2nd.

Early in the second Nyquist used his speed to force a turnover and threw it in front where Z was all alone and buried it to make it 2-2. This goal opened the flood gates and the Wings, specifically the 3rd line of Sheahan, Weiss and Glendening took over. After a horrendous Panther turnover, Luongo made a great save on Weiss only to see Glendening put in the rebound to make it 3-2 Detroit. Not long after, Sheahan made a strong move to the net and threw a pass backdoor to give Weiss a goal against his former team and the Red Wings a 4-2 lead. Only 4 minutes after his first goal, Glendening would get a second after Weiss’ attempted pass bounced onto 41’s stick in front. Before the Wings could finish the period with their three goal lead, a stupid penalty by Smith and a lucky Panther shot from the goal line cut the lead to 5-3.

A very boring start to the 3rd as the Wings attempted, and mostly succeeded to keep everything to the outside. About halfway through the Panthers finally got a chance when Pirri was left alone in front. Luckily, his deflection rang off the post and the Wings maintained their 5-3 lead. However the luck only lasted for another two minutes when a Z turnover and some poor defending left Brad Boyes backdoor. Now with the lead down to only one goal with 9 minutes remaining the Red Wings seemed to tighten up and the defensive positioning got sloppier as the period continued. With 2:32 left Miller was called for interference and Red Wing nation started to get extremely nervous. However thanks to a couple great saves by Mrazek the Wings were able to survive and keep the winning streak alive.

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