Red Wings v. Les Canadiens (The Live-Blog)

The first thing I want to say is: THIS IS SO COOL!  The Montreal Canadiens are here and the place is full and its just like a playoff game and it is just such a shame that Canadien only come in once every two years.  Everybody is pumped.  The game wasn't 90 seconds old and the crowd had the
Let's go Red Wings" cheer going in full throat.

Detroit gets an early power play chance but they can't do a thing with it which is no surprise.  Canadiens are #1 on the penalty kill in the league (89.3%) and #1 on the PK on the road, (95.6%).  They've allowed 2 power play goals on the road this season (11 games).  With the kill on Detroit's first power play of the night, Montreal has now killed 46 of 48 penalties against them, improving the road PK percentage to 95.8%.

There are not nearly as many empty seats in the arena tonight as there were against Nashville here on Wednesday which proves this much, at least: the Montreal Canadiens are a better draw than dollar hot dogs.

Montreal scuffled along last season, making the playoffs on the last night of the regular season, earning the 8th and final spot in the Eastern Conference.  They, as you will recall, thereupon upset the #1 seed, Washington, and the #4 seed, Pittsburgh.  In the off-season they proceeded to not sign Jaroslav Halak, the goalie whose remarkable play (remarkable being a word which grossly understates the case) was responsible for those upsets.  Carey Price--benched in last year's playoffs--has won the Montreal starting job this season and has responded pretty well, you'd have to say.  His goals-against is 1.96, his save percentage is .936.  He's 4th in goals-against, 3rd in save percentage, and, most importantly of all, first in wins with 17.

Travis Moen has just opened the scoring.  At 11:25 he banked one in off Jimmy Howard's right skate from behind the net.  The fans always take a dim view when this sort of thing happens, the general opinion holding that it's a bad goal, but the boards are lively here and Howard had to go post-to-post after a long-range Montreal shot missed the net.  It's hard to cover the sole of your foot with your hand, especially if you are using it to hold a goalie stick at the time.  (If you don't believe me, try it at home.)

Canadiens take separate penalties :09 apart late in the period.  This will test that Montreal road PK.  Detroit gets plenty of chances in the first 50-seconds of the 5-on-3 and after Price makes a glove save and a beauty (he's made quite of few of them here int he first period) Montreal calls time-out.  When the game resumes its chance after chance for Detroit, the play at all times from below the top of the face-off circles in.  Finally, it pays off.  The goal comes with no time showing on the clock, but upon review, the shot, by Nicklas Lidstrom from the top of the crease off a Pavel Datsyuk centering feed from behind the net, crossed the goal line with 1.2 seconds left in the period.  The official time is thus 19:58. Detroit outshot Montreal 18-7 in the first 20 minutes and still came within a second or so of trailing after one.  Instead, it's: DETROIT 1, MONTREAL 1.  


The Wings get yet another power play early in the second (their 5th of the night against none for Montreal) when the Canadiens are called for Too Many Men on the Ice.  The Wings don't use it break the tie, but moments after the penalty ends, they do.  Dan Cleary comes through with what might be the assist of the year, a centering pass while lying flat on his belly, and Niklas Kronwell banks a slapper off the goalpost and in to the left of Price at 3:48 to make it:  DETROIT 2, MONTREAL 1.  Cleary thus moves into contention for what is, right now, a tight battle for one of the "Three Stars" accolades--which I get to pick tonight.  (We'll show those Montreal writers how its done!)

Pavel Datsyuk just scored as pretty a goal as you are ever likely to see which is getting somewhat tiresome as he does this more or less every night.  This time he roofed a backhand to finish a breakaway and put Detroit up by 2.  Datsyuk actually used the blade of his stick to scoop the puck up and throw it under the crossbar over the left shoulder of Price who, when all was said and done, didn't have a chance in the world.  The goal came 0:14 after the first penalty of the game on the Red Wings (Jonathan Ericsson, Hooking at 13:17) came to an end.  The Wings get still another power play before the period ends and now have 6 PP's to 1 for Montreal.  The period ends.  The score now: DETROIT 3, MONTREAL 1.  


Welcome back to the game, which by the way, we now have one of to welcome you back to.  Montreal's back in it.  Here's what happened.  Todd Bertuzzi lost his stick and Canadiens nearly scored because of it, but finally the Wings got it out of the zone.  They seemed to relax once that happened though, had a sloppy line change, and let Benoit Pouliot walk in and rip one past Howard from between the rings at 7:43.  So...about 9 to go now and we have a game:  DETROIT 3, MONTREAL 2.


We're down to 7:30 to go and so far in this third period, the Wings have managed only 2 shots on goal.  Canadiens, for those of you scoring at home, have 12.  The Wings are hanging on, barely.

They just asked me for the 3 Stars which they do with about 5 minutes to go.  Here they are: #1 Datsyuk for his great goal and for assisting on the goal that made it 1-1 in the first, #2 Cleary for his great assist on the go-ahead goal, and #3 Howard because, right now, well, he's winning.  We'll see how these picks hold up.  3:41 left to go, now.

Howard just did his part.  He made a unbelievable save on P.K. Suppan, gloving the puck while falling backwards.  A true game-saver, I can tell you that and the 20,000 here would back me up.

Patrick Eaves finishes it with 0:46 left.  He got a loose puck on the left side and waited and waited and waited until he fired a writer into the empty net from just inside the Montreal line.  It's unassisted and it sends the crowd home happy.  Still 0:30 to go but it looks good for sure: DETROIT 4, MONTREAL 2.  


The horn and it's over.  In spite of being outshot in the 3rd period 20-4, the Wings win.  Thanks for a great night, Montreal, we'll see you right back here in, oh, about two years. (Unless we both make the Final!  Hey, there's a thought...) It's the Packers in town to try to Lions Sunday afternoon (I can't see that going well) and we'll talk to you then.