Wings 2, Flames 1 (2OT)
Last night was a killer. As the time slipped away in the third with the game tied at one, my stress level started to rise. I watched the game with my friend who I went to Saturday’s game with and she was pretty much laughing at me freaking out. During the entire OT scenario, she was sitting on the edge watching the game and I’m clutching my pillow with my eyes peeking over it and praying that we don’t do anything stupid. I live in a quiet dorm on campus and I’m pretty sure everyone on my floor heard my friend and I yell out in joy after Franzen’s goal. It was a beauty.
Since I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night (after the game, I had to stay up until 3am to finish a paper), I’m not going to say much in terms of postgame reaction, but I did compile what everyone else is saying. And I will not talk about the next series’ opponent (aside from saying go Dallas!) until it has been decided because I just want to savor this series win before the stress sets in once again.
But before I do, Robert Lang scored AND screened Kipper on Johan Franzen’s series winning goal? Langer redeemed himself in a big way last night. Plus, both of our trade deadline acquistions (Todd Bertuzzi and Kyle Calder) had assists last night. Oh and one other thing, in the intermission John Keating asked a player (Lidstrom?) where the Wings should try to shoot on Kipper. He didn’t have an answer. I yell out “above his glove - top right corner!” And where does Franzen score? Top right corner. Victory is sweet baby.
Source: JULIAN H. GONZALEZ / Detroit Free Press
Reactions via the media
Mike Babcock in the Detroit Free Press:
“I haven’t been in Detroit very long, but our fans, people at our rink, the media — I don’t know if they think we’ve got some sort of disease and they think we’re going to fail or whatever, but to me we carry that around,” Babcock said. “This team isn’t about’ ‘03 and it isn’t about ‘04 or ‘06. It’s about this year. We have a good team. We’ve been a determined group from the get-go. People said we weren’t going to be very good and we are good.”
Johan Franzen via the Detroit News:
“It’s unbelievable, what a great feeling,†Franzen said. “They were really tired and we tried to take advantage of it. I don’t think Kiprusoff saw me.
“Right now I can’t describe the feeling. It’s great to get this series over with. They were a little more tired than we were. We were playing in their end most of the overtime.â€
Kipper played great this series and definitely kept Calgary in the games (via Calgary Herald):
Johan Franzen potted the winner at 4:23 of the second extra session. The killing blow came on the Wings’ 55th shot of the evening directed at Miikka Kiprusoff, and their 255th of the series. Calgary’s corresponding numbers in that category were 21 and 129.
“He faced enough shots for probably three series,” said veteran Flames defenceman Rhett Warrener. “We didn’t do enough to support him. You can’t say enough about Miikka. I tell you what — I’m certainly glad he’s playing behind me.”
“He’s been our backbone the whole year,” said rookie right-winger David Moss, “and he kept us in it again tonight. I can’t say enough about him.”
Kiprusoff certainly did his part, and then some, to keep his cohorts in the series — despite the losing effort, the Finn had a spiffy .929 save percentage — but the Flames were overmatched in most other categories.
Nick Lidstrom and Kris Draper’s thoughts via the Detroit Free Press:
Nicklas Lidstrom, on conditioning: “The first round is always the toughest, to kind of get used to going from regular season to the playoffs. In a way, I think it helped that we faced some adversity. We won two games, went on the road and lost two…It was great to see the team come out and play so strong in Game 5 in Detroit. Coming out here, I thought we played our best game tonight.â€
Kris Draper, on avoiding a third straight loss to a team from Western Canada in the playoffs: “We weren’t really buying into the past failures. This is a much different team than the last couple years in the playoffs. We feel we’re bigger, stronger. In this series, the way we competed, the way we kept getting pucks in deep, finishing our checks, it was just a matter of time to wrap this thing up.â€
After Brett Lebda was injured on Saturday, Detroit called up Kyle Quincey who had just finished playing in a playoff game for the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) in Winnipeg. He hopped on a one hour flight to Calgary and played pretty well considering it was his first NHL playoff game and he didn’t have the luxury of playing with the team over the past month to develop chemistry. He didn’t make any stupid mistakes that I noticed and that’s all that matters (via Detroit News):
In six games with the Wings this season, Quincey had one goal and no assists while averaging 11 minutes of ice time.
Quincey was plus-1 and played 13:55 with two hits and two blocked shots.
“Those games helped me,†Quincey said. “I didn’t have time to be nervous (Sunday). This is unbelievable, being part of all this, being in this building. I was never part of anything like that (the excitement at the start of the game). Now with the victory, it’s unreal.â€
Alex Tanguay (via Calgary Sun):
“It stings right now,” said Calgary left-winger Alex Tanguay. “It’s definitely frustrating. We felt from day one of the season we had a good enough team to play against anybody.
“We have the goaltender to go as far as we’d have liked. Definitely stings right now.”
Michael Rosenberg, columnist for the Detroit Free Press:
And mostly, the Wings will get a big psychological boost — not just for winning a series for the first time in two years, but for winning a hard series.
With their season on the line, the Red Wings crushed Calgary at home — and maintained their poise when the Flames used the third period of Game 5 to practice for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. They then won an elimination game in Calgary, where the Flames won a league-high 30 home games this season.
If the Wings’ power play goes through another drought, the Wings will remember that it happened in this series, and they came through. They now have evidence that if they crash the net and play 60 minutes of relentless, intense hockey, they can beat any goalie, because Miikka Kiprusoff is as good as anybody.
Flames’ blogger reactions
I’d first like to thank all the Flames’ bloggers for sharing their opinions with the Wings’ fans and I really did enjoy reading all of your blogs. Thanks for the links and good luck with making changes to your team in the offseason. I hope you saw BTJ as a biased, but solid read and thanks for visiting!
Duncan at Flames Blog:
Mercifully, 2006-07 is over for the Calgary Flames. A lost opportunity with this roster, especially one enjoying the services of Miikka Kiprusoff in his prime, and hopefully we just witnessed the final condemnation of the Jim Playfair administration.
Outshot 55-21 on home ice in a must-win game? Ridiculous. Tonight was the final bit of evidence against coach Jimmy, and it was just a Kiprusoffian miracle that extended that to the second OT.
I just want to say that I really enjoyed reading Duncan’s blog over the series. He really said it how it was whether it was a positive or a negative about his team’s play. I’ll certainly be reading his blog throughout the next season as well and I wish I had found it earlier before this series.
Walkinvisible at Hit the Post:
and when all was said and done after detroit scored in 2OT, i received his text that said “are you OK ?” and i can honestly say i was. cause it’s the end of this excrutiating era.
playfair best be gone.
go flames 08, and go rangers 07.
Kyle at The Real Deal Hockey:
Well, I think first and foremost, you have to hand it to the Red Wings for their execution of their gameplan. I would say in every aspect of the game, they for the most part had their way with the Calgary Flames. 3 of the 4 lines were constant scoring threats and just general pains in the asses to play against. It’s a bit of a lark to call the Cleary - Draper - Maltby line a ‘3rd line’ because they were a true two-way force and arguably made the difference in the series. MVP for Detroit might have to go to Danny Cleary, I would say he was their best all around player in the series.
Wings bloggers reactions
Matt at On the Wings:
Congratulations to Calgary on a hard-fought series. And a special nod goes out to Miikka Kiprusoff for his otherwordly performances at key points in the series. While not quite as good as his 2004 show, Kipper was pretty much the sole reason the series was not shorter. You have a gem, Calgary.
My condolences to Flames fans. Believe me when I say that I know what it’s like to get your hopes up about a team only to have them dashed in a kind of betrayal of trust. And to the Flames bloggers, it was a pleasure reading you guys over the past couple weeks. For whatever reason, I’d not had exposure to the Calgary blogosphere before and it was good to learn about the high quality of it.
More reaction will be posted as I see them…Go Wings!
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7 Responses to “Wings 2, Flames 1 (2OT)”
Leave a Reply
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Thanks Christy, I really appreciate that. Behind the Jersey is a great, comprehensive read, as are many of the Wings blogs. I’ll be keeping track of the coming rounds through you guys. Thanks.
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
[…] … Be sure to check out Dave’s recap of the game, as well as Christy and IwoCPO’s roundups. […]
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hey, I have respect for any blog that is based on Steve Yzerman in virtually any way.
Did you know that in the 2002 Olympics Gold Medal game, the trainer, Ken Lowe, said that if it had been game 7 of the Stanley Cup final he wouldn’t have let Yzerman play because he was that injured?
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
What a great game! Christy is hilarious to watch an overtime game with… just so you all know!
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Duncan & Kyle- Thanks for the kind words. And I did hear that Yzerman anecdote, but I have no problem hearing it again. Gotta love Yzie (as I like to call him).
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Well, I have to say, even as a anti-Wings fan I was impressed with the game (mostly) that was played.
Detroit solidly out played Calgary and deserved last night’s win - but at least you had to earn it tonight!
That being said, Kipper was flat out amazing - he’s the only reason it wasn’t another complete blow-out.
Congrats!
January 1st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
[…] Wings journey to the Western Conference finals in the 2007 playoffs. From the first round defeat of Calgary to the close series with San Jose to the team’s loss to Anaheim in the WCF, BTJ talked about […]