Pittsburgh Penguins at Detroit Red Wings
Welcome to Game Two of this best of seven series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings dominated Game 1 scoring a couple quick goals early on and then just peppering Penguins goalie Marc Andre Fleury the rest of the game. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin were bottled up for the entire game and really couldn't get anything going. With their first championship game under their belt, they look to come out strong in Game 2.
Game 2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit:
As expected the Penguins come out fast. The Penguins take a play out of the Wings playbook cycling the puck down low and Talbot pushes it back to the point. Whitney passes over to Letang who one times is and scores! Kris Letang gives the Penguins a 1-0 lead. The Wings don't seem to be phased by the early goal and get to work on offense. A few minutes after the Penguin goal, Hudler passes to Lidstrom streaking down the left wing. He holds it, Fleury goes down, he passes back to Cleary and he blasts it into the goal to tie it up, 1-1! The hitting begins to pick up now. Crosby flies into the Wings zone with Ovechkin. Crosby drops it back to Ovie and he rifles a perfect shot past Osgood and the Pens are back on top, 2-1. Near the end of the period, the Wings catch the Penguins off guard and work over their fourth line. Gary Roberts holds onto Zetterberg and gets called. The Wings powerplay is humming, but Fleury is makes a couple big saves. As the penalty expires, the Penguins are having trouble getting off the ice and the Wings look as though their still on the powerplay. Kronwall blasts one to the net, its stopped by Fleury, but Clearly hacks away and knocks the puck into the net, 2-2!
To start the second period, the Wings continue the domination. The Penguins try to lineup Datsyuk or Zetterberg for a big hit, but are hitting the glass. The Wings catch the Pens on a line change and Rafalski hits Samuelsson with a long pass. Hal Gill tries to catch him but can't. Samuelsson goes around behind the net, catches Fleury off guard and backhands it into the goal and the Wings are on top 3-2! The Penguins top line is now beginning to show signs of frustration as Ovechkin and Crosby are shadowed by the Red Wing defenders, Datsyuk and Zetterberg. Ovechkin blasts a shot, its blocked and goes the other way. Ovechkin gets back to the bench and smashes his stick into the boards, breaking it. The Wings cycle down low, Zetterberg feeds it to Lidstrom. He drifts towards the right boards with the puck before winding up and blasting past Fleury on his stick side, 4-2 Wings! With 1:28 left in the period, the Pens catch a break and Datsyuk is called for high sticking. On the ensuing powerplay, Ovechkin blasts one off the crossbar. Right before the end of the period, Hossa gets a wide open shot from the bottom of the right circle, but he misfires and the shot goes high and into the mesh. The Penguins go into the locker room down by two goals.
The Penguins fail to convert in the final 32 seconds of the powerplay, but as soon as that penalty expires, Brett Lebda is called for tripping. The Pens go back on the powerplay. Thirty five seconds into that powerplay, Chelios is called for holding and the Pens go on a two man advantage to a chorus of boos from the fans. Therrien calls timeout to rest his top PP unit. The Penguins setup quickly. Crosby passes from behind the net to Hossa, his shot is blocked, but Ovechkin races over picks up the loose rebound and buries it past Osgood for the power play goal, 4-3! The Wings continue to outshoot the Penguins, but the Pens are getting their chances. Kennedy and Cleary both get sent off for roughing, setting up a 4-4 situation. The Pens send out Crosby, Ovechkin, Gonchar and Whitney and the Wings counter with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom and Kronwall. The Wings defend the dynamic duo by simply keeping them bottled up in their own end. The 4-4 ends with Kris Draper receiving a boarding penalty. On the powerplay, Detroit keeps the pressure on the Penguins forwards, forcing them to make quick decisions. Zetterberg blocks a Gonchar shot from the point and carries the puck out of the zone, before softly dumping it into the Penguins zone. As the minutes tick away in regulation, the Penguins are having a hard time getting anything going. Fleury is pulled and the Sykora is the extra attacker. The Pens dump it in the zone, but Osgood plays it and shoots it right back out. Pittsburgh crosses the blueline again, Hossa drops off for Whitney. He throws a wrister through traffic and its redirected by Crosby through Osgood's legs and into the goal with 33 seconds remaining! The Joe is silent as the Penguins have come back to tie the game! The time expires and we're headed to overtime.
The play is overtime is even. No one really getting great scoring chances on either side. Osgood makes a nice stick save on Ovechkin at the half way point of the first overtime. At the other end, Fleury robs Samuelsson with the glove just inside the left circle. For the first time in the series, both teams look very evenly matched in their play. In the final minute of the first OT, Hudler dishes off to Franzen. He moves in on Fleury and roofs one over his right shoulder, just inside the crossbar for the game winner! Wings win 5-4 in OT!
Stars of the Game:
1. Johan Franzen (GW goal, 1 assist, +2)
2. Marc Andre Fleury (51 saves)
3. Alexander Ovechkin (2 goals, 5 shots, -2)
Other notables:
Chris Osgood (25 saves)
Pavel Datsyuk (0 points, 2 shots, +1)
Henrik Zetterberg (1 assist, 6 shots, +1)
Sidney Crosby (1 goal, 1 assist, -1)
Marian Hossa (0 points, 0 shots, -1)
Penguins 4 - Red Wings 5 (OT) Detroit leads the series 2-0
Posted
May 08 2009, 07:00 AM
by
Nick Fruscello