Red Wings 3, Blackhawks 2 (SO) – Recap

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: February 19, 2015

The Hawks hosted the Wings on Wednesday on the West Side. (This may be the last alliterative opening line for a while; the Hawks host the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.) These two Original Six teams used to meet more often, but after the Red Wings’ move to the Eastern Conference, the teams meet only twice this season, this the second of the two meetings. While it is unfortunate that these two historic franchises and rivals meet only twice this year, it will all be worth it if they ever meet for the Stanley Cup.

Early on, there was a lot of back-and-forth with the Hawks winning the battle for shots, but the goalies, Corey Crawford for the Blackhawks and Jimmy Howard for the Red Wings, keeping the puck out of their respective nets. The Wings would get the game’s first power play 9:15 in after Bryan Bickell slashed Stephen Weiss. The Hawks won this battle of the league’s best power play versus the league’s best penalty kill, and at the end of it, had a great scoring chance, which was foiled, but by a Justin Abdelkader penalty. After a few seconds of 4-on-4, the Hawks had a great power play, getting a few good shots, although no goals. After the Abdelkader penalty ended, the Hawks continued to dominate the action, challenging Howard, who rose to the occasion each time.

The Hawks would get another power play with just over a minute and a half left in the period after rookie Ryan Hartman took a high stick from Kyle Quincy. The Hawks would come up empty for the remainder of the first and take 26 seconds of power play time, and a 17-6 lead in shots on goal, into the first intermission, with the game tied at 0.

The Hawks began the second the way they ended the first, but after a few minutes, the momentum shifted and Detroit was threatening. However, every shot they got on Crawford was stopped. The Hawks would get the first power play of the period just under six-and-a-half minutes in when Teemu Pulkkinen was sent off for hooking Brad Richards. The Hawks again came up empty on the man advantage, but just as was the case in the first, the Hawks continued to control the game after the power play had concluded, getting a few chances that required brilliant saves from Jimmy Howard.

Despite the Hawks controlling the game, it was the Red Wings that scored the game’s first goal, with Tomas Tatar scoring after a great pass from Darren Helm 16:10 into the period. The lead would not last long for the Red Wings, though, as Brandon Saad beat Howard 39 seconds later. Both teams would get chances after this, but great play by the two goaltenders would keep the game tied at 1 for the remainder of the period.

The third period started with good back-and-forth action by the two teams. After a few minutes, the Red Wings began to control the action, getting a few good chances, though nothing would find the back of the net. In time, the Hawks would regain the momentum, leading to a great chance that was denied by Howard. However, a Hawks power play followed, as Abdelkader was sent off interference 8:38 into the period. For much of the power play, the Hawks struggled to get anything going. They would finally get a couple nice looks late in the penalty, but nothing found the back of the net.

After a lot of back-and-forth action, the Red Wings took the lead when a shot by Helm went off Seabrook’s leg and into the net with just over two minutes left to play. As was the case with the first Detroit goal, though, the lead did not last long as, after Crawford was pulled in favor of the extra attacker, a shot by Kris Versteeg deflected off of Niklas Cronwall and past Howard to tie the game at 2. The score would hold for the remainder of the period, and we would head to overtime.

Detroit controlled the action at the beginning of the overtime period, but a couple great saves by Crawford kept the game tied. Evetnually, the Hawks would gain the momentum and get a few chances of their own, though nothing got past Howard. At the end of five minutes, the teams were still tied and we would go to a shootout to determine who got the extra point.

In round one of the shootout, Pavel Datsyuk was denied by Crawford, and at the other end, Jonathan Toews beat Howard.

In round two, Gustav Nyquist scored for Detroit and Kane drew iron at the other end.

In round three, Tatar beat Crawford and Sharp was denied by Howard to give the Red Wings the extra point.

Games like this are exactly why shootouts are a bad idea. These two teams played sixty-five minutes of outstanding hockey and the game came down to a skills contest. Seriously, the NHL has got to come up with a better way of deciding games that go to overtime.

My picks for 3 stars:

★★★ Darren Helm, C, DET (1 G, 1 A)

★★ Corey Crawford, G, CHI (26 SV, 2 GA)

★ Jimmy Howard, G, DET (32 SV, 2 GA)

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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