Wings 4, Flames 1
I’m not going into a lot of detail regarding plays, stats, etc. as I know plenty of other bloggers will do so and will do better at it than I would. That being said, I’m just so happy the Wings won!! I know it’s only one game. And I know that Calgary did not show their A game tonight. But it was exciting to win and to get that many goals on Kipper when he played as well as he did today (it easily could’ve been a much higher score). Tomorrow afternoon, I will try to post some reactions from other bloggers and the media, but it’s almost 1am and I have an early morning class so this won’t be as detailed as I’d like.
Source: John T. Greilick / The Detroit News
I haven’t enjoyed a playoff game like that in a long time. The Wings scored pretty quickly with rookie Valtteri Filppula’s goal only 4:51 minutes into the first. I’m always incredibly anxious before the first goal of a game and knowing that the Wings are up by one goal eases my nerves a bit. It was great to see a rookie score the first goal of the playoffs for the Wings. The Wings second goal less than four minutes later on a power play as captain Nicklas Lidstrom scored on a pass from rookie Jiri Hudler. After both rookie’s play tonight, who would you pick to keep playing once Todd Bertuzzi returns? I wish Babcock would keep both and let Mikael Samuelsson sit, but you know that won’t happen. I would say Hudler, but who knows…
I was really impressed with Kipper throughout most of the game. Yes, the Wings scored on him four times but there were stretches that I couldn’t believe some of the saves he was pulling off. Quite impressive if you ask me.
Pavel Datsyuk had some great chances and finally conquered his playoff demons by scoring 6:56 into the second period. It was his first playoff goal since the 2002 Western Conference Finals game seven against the Colorado Avalanche. Defenseman Mathieu Schneider scored the Wings’ last goal of the game about three minutes after Datsyuk’s.
The Wings were more physical than they were probably all of the Oilers’ series last postseason and for a chance were actually hitting instead of being hit first. I was surprised to see Zetterberg throwing his weight around and he seemed to fit in pretty well after missing six weeks to a back injury.
Calgary’s Alex Tanguay scored his team’s only goal 14:55 into the third period.
The Basics
- Datsyuk, Lidstrom, and Mathieu Schneider all scored a goal and notched an assist.
- Brett Lebda, Robert Lang, Johan Franzen, and Tomas Holmstrom each got an assist.
- The Wings scored one power play goal in seven opportunities and successfully killed off all but one of their five penalties.
- Detroit outshot Calgary, 46-20.
Playoff Tickets
Wow. The Wings failed to sellout for their first playoff game. You can name all the excuses in the book, but I was still surprised to see that the announced attendance was 19,204 (full arena = 20,066). I wish I could go to the games, but as a college student you can only afford so much. I bought tickets to two games and unless they make it to the third round and beyond, I can’t afford to buy anymore. Hopefully people will be excited about the win and show up on Sunday afternoon.
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April 13th, 2007 at 10:46 am
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