MVN - Most Valuable Network

Ducks Defeat Detroit, 3-2

The Joe Louis Arena has not been kind to the Ducks in all 14 years of their existence during the regular season. The record against the esteemed Detroit Red Wings has been 2-19-6 in that building. During the playoffs, that’s a different number, but during the regular season the Ducks can rejoice if they earn a point. The Ducks just upped that number to 3-19-6 with a rare win that extended their winning streak to four games and extended the Red Wings losses to match a season-high three games in a row.

Instead of the usual Ducks broadcasters on the usual Ducks stations, the game was chosen the “Game of the Week” and shown on NBC. While one might have thought the broadcasters would be neutral, that was not the case. Of course these are some of the same broadcasters I sat next to at a Ducks practice during the Western Conference Finals last year. The series was tied up and still early, but there was much discussion about the best way to get from Detroit to Ottawa and where to stay for the Cup Finals. I was in disbelief at what I was hearing and thought perhaps they were a wee bit premature in their prognostication. Listening to some of the commentary this afternoon, I had a feeling of deja vu and I still think there was some animosity towards the Ducks for making the poor widdle broadcasters fly from Ottawa to California. The nerve of them!

Jean-Sebastien Giguere was in goal and stopped 27 of 29 shots. Chris Osgood was in net as the Red Wings had played yesterday in Toronto. The Red Wings scored first on the power play, one of eight chances that they were given. Pavel Datsyuk put the puck past a screened Giguere at 14:16. The Ducks had some life of their own when Ryan Carter continued his scoring streak and earned career goal #3 at 17:49. Carter took a beautiful pass from Rob Niedermayer, who was behind the net. With Osgood down, Carter went up top and the game was tied. The assist to Niedermayer was his 400th career point.

The lively game continued in the second period with former Red Wing Mathieu Schneider making it 2-1 at 8:28. Chris Kunitz kept the puck alive and got it to Schneider who shot it past a screened Osgood. Detroit was more than a little ticked off about that. Both teams were playing 4 on 4 due to a hooking penalty by Chris Pronger and a diving penalty by Mikael Samuelsson. Samuelsson’s penalty occurred after the whistle blew and Kunitz goaded him into taking the penalty. Detroit obviously thought Kunitz belonged in the box as well to give the Red Wings a power play. Instead, Kunitz earned the assist on the go-ahead goal.

The second period continued on and the Ducks continued scoring. Kent Huskins went around the Red Wings defense and with Osgood scrambling in the crease, Huskins roofs the shot and makes it 3-1 at 15:20. That is usually the time for a fight, and George Parros obliged Aaron Downey, who took Parros down to the ice after exchanging plenty of blows.

Carter continued to get good chances, but got a little overzealous and was called for goalie interference early in the third period. Five seconds before the penalty would expire, the Ducks earned another call, this time on Marchant for a high stick. The Red Wings wasted no time converting and Johan Franzen brought the Wings within a goal at 6:06.

The Ducks continued to hold on to the lead but with 2:29 left in the game, Francois Beauchemin took an ill-timed tripping penalty on Henrik Zetterberg. As the 5 on 4 progressed, Osgood vacated the net to make it 6 on 4. With a mere :40.7 seconds left on the clock, it appeared that Nicklas Lidstrom had tied up the game. It was ruled no goal as right before the puck went in, Tomas Holmstrom had been deemed as interfering with Giguere and the whistle blew the play dead. No, Detroit and the broadcasters were not happy about the turn of events. For the remaining seconds, during which Ducks fans did not take a single collective breath, the Ducks hung on, barely, earning two precious points against the top team in the league.

The Ducks and Red Wings will not meet again in the regular season, but it is highly likely they will meet again in the post season. Joe Louis is not nearly as daunting in the post season and the Ducks relish the opportunity to match up with their rival yet again.

For now, the Ducks head to Colorado for a game with the Avalanche on Tuesday. It will be the final game of their long road trip and then they can come home for some home cooking. The road trip is 4-2-1 thus far and no matter what happens on Tuesday, they will come away over the .500 mark for the longest trip in franchise history.

In other notes: Samuel Pahlsson was activated off the IR and was put on a line with Teemu Selanne and Todd Bertuzzi. Doug Weight was out with an announced “upper body injury.” To prevent the necessity of a personnel move, Travis Moen was put on the IR. He has missed the previous three games with the flu and had lost 10 pounds in that short period of time. While he practiced yesterday with the team, he is still recovering.

The Ducks let in two power play goals after killing all 10 chances in the previous three games.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.