Game 4 Live Blog: Wings/Pens
Come back at 8pm for a BTJ live blog for Game #4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Go Wings!
First Period
Tomas Holmstrom will NOT play tonight. Dan Cleary will fill his spot on the top line. Holmstrom will not play because the Wings don’t want to risk a tender hamstring in a non-elimination game. That is not good news whatsoever and very disappointing. Homer’s absence will make Marc-Andre Fleury’s job a lot easier tonight and that is not what the Wings want tonight.
18:44 - The Wings have already had some positive puck control in the Penguins’ zone including a couple of nice shots on net. That’s an encouraging sign.
17:48 - Dallas Drake was called for roughing on Ryan Whitney. Crap. We had momentum and then we go and take a dumb penalty in the offensive zone. Not so good.
17:07 - Pittsburgh scores via Marian Hossa tucking the puck in between Chris Osgood and the goal post. CRAP. It’s waay too early for the Penguins to get on the board especially since we had been controlling the game. And that’s why the Wings need to play disciplined hockey and stay away from dumb penalties. Anyone else notice that Lilja was on the ice for that? I wonder if we’ll see Chelios next game. Just a thought…
15:46 - Hossa’s shot goes off the post. This is not a good sign. Getting the early goal is so key because the crowd is loud and the Pens seem to have that extra jump from grabbing the early lead.
14:56 - Whitney gets called for a cross-check on Dan Cleary. Come on boys, let’s make this count.
12:56 - Well, that’s how to NOT do a power play. The puck seemed to spend more time in the neutral or defensive zones. Ugh.
12:54 - Lidstrom scores from the point while Dan Cleary screens the shot. Nicely done just as the penalty expired. It was key that the Wings responded with a goal less than five minutes after the Penguins scored.
10:57 - Rafalski gets called for a high-stick (the official call is roughing), which it was. But the refs had missed a high-stick on Samuelsson less than a minute before that.
9:55 - Datsyuk stole the puck from Fleury while on the penalty kill. Excellent. He wasn’t able to do anything with it, but killed off some time on the clock.
5:32 - Another frickin’ Detroit penalty as they took control of the game. Wings, you are killing me! You need to be more disciplined if you want to maintain dominance in this game. Seriously, get your act together. Kris Draper heads to the box for holding. Lovely, one of our top PKers and our top face-off guy is in the box.
3:01 - Lebda (cross-checking) and Talbot (diving) both get penalties for their interactions in front of Osgood. I can only imagine how unhappy Pens fans will be with the diving call after all their Ozzie and Homer diving remarks from previous games.
2:05 - Another pair of penalties - Franzen and Orpik. I’m tired of all the calls and it’s only the first period. That’s not a good sign.
End of First Period: Wings 1, Penguins 1
Wings outshoot the Pens, 14-9.
Second Period
16:16 - The Penguins go to the box. It’s interference by Jordan Staal. Yay, maybe the Wings can actually do something with this lead. The Wings are only 2/16 in the last four road games. Ouch!
14:16 - Well that was an ineffective power play. Again. Bummer.
8:55 - Fleury gives up a juicy rebound to Kirk Maltby, but he’s unable to capitalize on it.
4:46 - The Wings just had a couple good chances in a mad scramble in front of Fleury. But really this has been a fast tempo, zone-to-zone game. It’s very nerving!
3:56 - The Wings get a penalty for holding on Rafalski. Man. I’m so tired of us heading to the box.
2:42 - Fortunately for Detroit, this has been the Penguins crappiest power play of the night. They’ve been called for offsides twice already with 46 seconds left in the power play.
:20 - Hossa has been a beast tonight. Even I, as a Wings fan, can admit that. He has been dangerous with almost every puck touch and I’d appreciate it if that could stop ASAP.
End of Second Period: Wings 1, Penguins 1
Wings outshoot Pens, 21-16. Shots were tied at 7-7.
Third Period
17:33 - Hudler scores!!!!!!!!!! It was on a weak backhand shot that hits the post to the left of Fluery and then trickles in. What a huge goal and let’s hope the Wings can maintain this lead. All because Brad Stuart could keep the bouncing puck inside the Penguins zone.
15:51 - MAF gets a delay of game. Hossa serves the penalty.
13:51 - The Wings couldn’t get anything going. But I’ll take any power play where the Wings have a man advantage decreasing the Pens chances of scoring.
10:22 - Maltby gets called for scoring. CRAP. Way to give the Pens a chance to get back in this game. Yuck.
9:50 - Lilja heads to the box for interference. LOVELY. Are we going to just gift wrap a goal to them? And that’s why I would rather have Cheli in the game. The Pens get a 5-on-3 for a minute and a half. Let’s go Ozzie.
8:43 - Henrik Zetterberg’s skate prevents a puck from going in. Oh my gosh. I just about had a heart attack.
8:22 - The Wings kill off the first power play.
7:50 - Wings kill off the Lilja penalty. Amazing! They only allowed one shot during those two minor penalties. Wow.
4:20 - Dan Cleary gets off a shot, which looked like it hit the post. So close! [Update: A replay shows that it bounced off of Fluery’s skate that was right by the post.]
3:16 - Babcock calls a time out to rest his key players after the Wings got called for icing. Seems like a reasonable call by Babs to me.
2:20 - Another Detroit icing. Dang it. Scary to think the Pens fresh legs are going up against our tired guys.
:50ish - Penguins pull MAF for the extra attacker.
:00 - WINGS WIN IT BABY! They head back to the Joe for Monday’s game with a 3-1 series lead! Booya!
End of Third Period: Wings 2, Penguins 1
Wings outshoot Pens, 30-22.
You can view the official game summary here.
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12 Responses to “Game 4 Live Blog: Wings/Pens”
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May 31st, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Where’s the talented creative play?
More sand ice I assume.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I’m very disappointed with our power play performance of late.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:36 pm
If I see another shot that goes wide my head will blow up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 31st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Dats cant hit the net to save his life.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
They have really been sending their shots wide tonight. That’s for sure. Even more so than normal.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Cleary has lost all his will to skate.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I CAN BREATHE AGAIN!
May 31st, 2008 at 11:07 pm
GO WINGS!!
Ah, the joy of victory.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Now the whining begins once again.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:15 am
NHL network just played some highlights with Dave Strader as commentator, it wasnt CBC or NBC. I would so much rather listen to Dave than “Doc teach me about hockey Emerick”.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:24 am
Detroit pulled out a hell of an effort tonight. Maybe Datsyuk and Zetterberg were off offensively but they made up for it defensively in a big big way. It is impressive really that Detroit is the shutdown team and this duo is a huge reason why they are 1 win away from the Stanley Cup. I can hear the joy of Christy from all the way out here in socal.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
just wanted to say, we had some red wing fans sitting i front of us, some 10 or so and i was impressed how well behaved they were. there were pens fans that wanted to talk trash to them but they just kept it clean and enjoyed the game. hats off to them. myself and my 9 year old daughter thank them