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Red Wings use big third period to blast Coyotes
By Daniel Dullum April 23, 2010 |
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GLENDALE, Ariz. – To no one’s surprise, the Detroit Red Wings are one game away from advancing to the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. For this storied franchise, it’s a road well traveled, and they approach the situation accordingly. The atmosphere in the Wings’ locker room at Jobing.com Arena, following their decisive 4-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes in game five of their best-of-seven series, was pleasant, yet businesslike. Call it “cautious optimism.” The Red Wings head home to Joe Louis Arena with a 3-games-to-2 lead in their Western Conference opening round series, and a chance to close out the pesky Coyotes on a nationally-televised game six on Sunday. “I think the fourth win is always the toughest,” Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. “You’re going to meet a desperate team that’s going to give it everything, and that’s something you have to match. We know we have to be ready for that game come Sunday.” Prior to the game, the league announced that Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was a nominee for the Venzina Trophy. Bryzgalov, who stopped 28 of 31 shots, lived up to the billing ¬– for at least 58 of his minutes played. The Wings ability to score quickly and often showed up in a one-minute, nine-second span midway through the third period. After Detroit killed off Andreas Lilja’s hooking penalty, Tomas Holmstrom knocked in a rebound off a blast from the left point by Lidstrom at 11:09, putting the Red Wings ahead to stay at 2-1. Detroit struck again just over a minute later, when Pavel Datsyuk flipped in a backhand shot from the slot off a centering pass from Johan Franzen for his third goal of the playoffs. The Red Wings extended their lead to 4-1 when Henrik Zetterberg scored an empty net goal at 19:04. “It really showed in the third period, when it was 1-1 and the game can go either way,” Lidstrom said. “I thought some of our big guys stepped up; Datsyuk scored a big goal for us. I thought we were staying patient and taking the puck the puck to the net when we had to in the third period.” “It’s tough to get anything easy. You’ve got to work hard for it and you’ve got to have patience,” Zetterberg added. “Finally, we found a few ways to get a puck on net and score some goals.” “We got beat on coverage a couple of times,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. “The second goal was kind of a broken play. Actually, I thought the play should have been called dead because the player jumped on the side, and there was a kind of hesitation on the faceoff. “Our center man wasn’t ready, Adrian Aucoin backed off, the wall wasn’t ready,” Tippett continued. “They dropped the puck, Aucoin got beat to the net, we lost the faceoff clean and the puck ended up in the back of our net.” Detroit did an excellent job on the penalty kill, consistently keeping any Coyotes from positioning themselves in the slot. Phoenix was 0-5 with the man advantage. “They did score one goal where they did get some shots through and had guys at the net,” Lidstrom said. “But overall, especially in the third period, the game is on the line and they had a couple of power plays where we played our best. We were aggressive at the right moment, blocking shots and really sacrificing ourselves to get the win.” The Red Wings opened the scoring at 17:04 of the first period on a wraparound shot by Drew Miller, following two point-blank saves by Bryzgalov. The play was reviewed, and the goal was ruled good. At the 9:45 mark of the second period, Phoenix tied the game at 1-1 when Ed Jovanovski used some second-effort to knock a backhander past Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard on an initial shot by Aucoin. It was Jovanovski’s first goal of the playoffs. “In the first period, we put ourselves behind the eight-ball by taking penalties again,” Tippett said. “When you take three minors in the first period, you’ll be chasing the whole game.” Phoenix outshot the Wings 14-4 in the second period and went into the second intermission with a 1-1 tie. “In the second period, we played five-on-five and had a good period. We had some quality chances,” Tippett added. “The third period was a tight period. It was one of those games where every play counts, and we had two plays on their goals where our coverage just wasn’t good enough.’ Howard stopped 30 of 31 shots, but felt the turning point of the game was the two third period saves he made on breakaway attempts by Phoenix’s Martin Hanzal, the second one coming at 4:54. “He had one semi-breakaway, then he had a rebound come back out to him and I was able to reach back and get my blocker on it,” Howard said. “That’s when I really felt really locked in out there.” If anything, Howard is thriving on the playoff pressure as the series wears on. “I’m having fun out there,” Howard said. “This is the time of the year where leave every single thing out there on the ice every night. It’s a blast and I cherish it out there.” The status of Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who missed games four and five with what the NHL calls an “upper-body injury,” is still day-to-day. Doan, notably absent as pre-game scratch due to a shoulder injury suffered in Coyotes’ win in game three at Detroit, is listed as questionable for game six. “ He’s right there,” Tippett said. “Shane has the desire to play, but he has to be functional. You can’t put a player in a game that can’t compete, especially the way he plays. We’ll continue to monitor that; he continues to get better every day, and we’ll see if he’s ready to go.” Whether Doan is ready to or not, the Coyotes must prepare for the urgency of an elimination game, something this franchise hasn’t had to worry about since 2002. “If you’ve ever been around a team that’s fought adversity, this is one of them,” Tippett said. “It seems like we just keep getting piled on as it goes, and that’s become part of our identity. The one thing we can do is live up to our identity. We’re going to be a team that never quits. We’re going to be ready to go. We feel like we can compete with anybody, and we’ll go in there with that mindset.” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock concluded, “We obviously have to get ready to play. We dropped the ball on that Sunday afternoon game (a 4-2 loss in game three). It’s very important how we handle this and respond. You don’t want to give them any life whatsoever. They’ve got a good team, a good goaltender. “You’d hate to temp the fates and come back here.” If there is a game seven, it’s slated for Tuesday night in Glendale. |
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