9 Lives

8:11pm:  We are live-blogging tonight not from the HP Pavillion in San Jose, but from our office where we watch Game 5 between the Wings and Sharks on-line (Canadian feed from TSN) and on TV (US broadcast on Versus).  This will adversely impact our ability to both observe and comment on the action, but it's the best we can do.  You just don't see everything on TV that you do in person.  You can't.  You are at the mercy of the director.  We see only that which he chooses to show us.  And they miss a lot, usually because of their love of the close-up.  For example, when I'm at the arena and there's an apparent goal, the first thing I look for is the red light.  Has it come on?  Is it really a goal?  I'll bet you could watch a years worth of hockey on TV without even realizing that a red light is turned on whenever a goal is scored.  Watch tonight and you'll see what I mean.  They never show the red light.  The always cut in close so you can see the facial expression of the player who just scored.  Or they'll show some fans in the stands.  I don't care about either.  I assume the player is happy and overjoyed and all, and I assume the fans are jumping up and down in glee so why waste my time showing either?  Don't get more started about sports on TV...
We do enjoy the same access to the Official Game Notes and real-time scoring that we get when we are in person, so there is that.  The question for me tonight is whether I'll see another live game this season.  If San Jose wins, the series will be over and the answer will be no.  The Wings are attempting tonight to do something they have never do before:  force a series in which they trailed 0-3 to a Game 6.  The Wings are--as we mentioned the night before last from the Joe Louis Arena--0-10 all-time in series in which they trailed three games to none.  Nine of the ten times they've been swept out in four games, the lone exception being last years' series against the Sharks when Detroit won Game 4 to extend the series, only to lose it in five.  The big story at the outset tonight is that both Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen are in the lineup.  I saw a report a little over an hour before game time that neither would not play due to injury, a development which made me think that this Game 5 was over before it began and with it, the series.  I don't think Detroit wins without those two.  We are underway and San Jose is on the power play.  We'll keep you up to date.  FIRST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
8:27pm:  We have played one half of one period:  edge, San Jose.  They've had more scoring chances--that will happen when you outshoot a team 9-2 which is what the Sharks have done so far--and what we have here is what we expected we would have, what any road team expects; you have to weather a storm.  Usually early.  Usually right out of the gate, in fact.  So far, though the Wings have hung on.  San Jose is 0-1 on the power play tonight, 4-18 in the series (18.2%).  Niklas Lidstrom has just been called for tripping at 11:28 and its power play number 2 in the first period for San Jose.  FIRST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 0.
8:42pm:  At 17:18, San Jose scores on a long shot from the line which is tipped past Jimmy Howard.  Devon Setoguchi, who scored three goals in Game 3 including the overtime game-winner, gets the even-strength goal on assists from Dan Boyle and Joe Thornton.  It was Boyle's blue line wrist shot which was tipped in.  These three guys have killed Detroit in this series.  The period winds down and with the teams at four-on-four in the waning moments due to offsetting penalties at 17:43, it ends.  Detroit is outshot 15-7 (San Jose held an 11-2 edge at one point in the period) and they are down a goal in this do-or-die game.  END OF FIRST PERIOD; DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
8:52pm:  If the Wings lose, you can replay in your mind over and over the save San Jose's Antti Niemi made on Jonathan Ericsson on the first shot he face in the game.  Ericsson has the whole upper half of the net to hit from inside twenty feet, and Niemi made as good a glove save as it is possible to make to stop him.  Both Franzen and Datsyuk played as much in the period as any other Detroit forwards, pretty much.  Both had 9 shifts.  Only Darren Helm had more, and he had ten.  FIRST INTERMISSION: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
9:04pm:  The second period begins.
9:09pm:  Another San Jose power play at 2:46.  Datsyuk goes off for holding and Detroit is short for the third time tonight.  Reminds you, in reverse, of Game 4 when the Wings had the first four power play chances in the game.  Howard makes two amazing saves on Boyle to keep it a one-goal game as the Sharks power play continues.  Detroit has been outshot 21-9, now.  16:30 LEFT IN SECOND PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
9:12pm:  Detroit back to full strength.  
9:15pm:  One thing you notice on the TSN broadcast is their use of the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme song.  I do, at least.  That's because I grew up in Detroit and as such got the Canadian Broadcasting Company's (might be "Corporation, I'm not 100% on that) Channel 9 from Windsor, Ontario which meant I got to watch HNIC every Saturday night.  Probably a better-known piece of music in Canada than their own national anthem, "O Canada", the copyright on the HNIC theme music expired a few years ago and TSN bid a million bucks to get it away from the CBC--Canada's taxpayer funded network.  It was crummy thing for TSN to do as that music really stood for the CBC.  A poll was held and Canadian citizens opted not to use tax money to outbid TSN for the music.  And do now TSN has it.  They also have the awful former CBS sportscaster Chris Cuthbert (owner of one of the most annoying voices in all of broadcasting) calling the game tonight.  Detroit is about to go on the power play. Joe Thonton goes off for hooking.  Detroit is 4-16 (25.0%) on the pp in this series.  9:55 LEFT, SECOND PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
9:28pm:  The Wings spend the power play trying--and usually failing--to gain the San Jose line.  Detroit fails to get a shot in goal with the man advantage.  The teams are back to full strength.  6:30 LEFT, SECOND PERIOD: DETROIT 0, SAN JOSE 1.
9:34PM:  This is bad.  This is very bad.  At 15:32 Joe Pavelski converts at feed from Ryane Clowe, tipping it high into the net to make it 2-0.  BUT THE WINGS ANSWER!  At 16:25, Niklas Kronwall takes a feed from Datsyuk and whips a hard shot home, beating Niemi short side.  Brad Stewart also assists.  3:00 LEFT, SECOND PERIOD: DETROIT 1, SAN JOSE 2.
9:42pm:  The second period ends.  Each team gets a goal and the Wings are outshot 13-9.  San Jose holds the advantage in shots on goal through two periods, 30-16.  There is one period to play, perhaps in the season.  Detroit is down a goal...  END OF SECOND PERIOD: DETROIT 1, SAN JOSE 2.
9:58pm:  Detroit is 8-24-4 (.222) this season when trailing after two periods.  That includes their 0-1-0 record in the playoffs this year.  (Detroit led Game 3 in this series after two periods, but lost in overtime.)  The third period begins...
10:00pm:  Continuing to track ice time, Datsyuk had 10 shifts in the second period, up from the nine he had in the first.  Franzen though had half the ice time in the second as compared to the first.  And now Logan Couture, the guy who scored the key game-tying goal from the corner against Howard in the 3rd period of Game 3 last year when the Wings coughed up a 3-1 lead and lost in OT to go down 0-3 in the series, has just scored at :54 to restore a two-goal lead for the Sharks.  Some say Couture will be the rookie of the year this year in the NHL.  Couture scored on a breakaway, finish with a nifty toe-drag to get Howard moving from post to post to created the opening into which he tucked the puck.  The Wings go on the power play.  17:10 LEFT, THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 1, SAN JOSE 3.
10:05pm:  The Wings don't score on the PP, but moments after it ends, ERICSSON SCORES! Datsyuk gets his second assist and Henrik Zetterberg also gets a helper as Ericsson winds up all alone out in front to make it, again, a one-goal game with at 3:43 of the third.  15:00 LEFT, THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 2, SAN JOSE 3.
10:08pm:  THE WINGS TIE IT!  A goal mouth scramble and from the side, standing behind the goal line, Dan Cleary managed to punch it in.  The time is 5:29 and it's two goals for Detroit in 1:46!  It's Cleary from Kronwall and Todd Bertuzzi and we are back to even.  New game, etc....12:45 LEFT, THIRD PERIOD, DETROIT 3, SAN JOSE 3.
10:14pm:  Just a note but as we are now a little past the halfway point of the third, Franzen has yet to play a single second in the period.  8:30 LEFT, THIRD PERIOD, DETROIT 3, SAN JOSE 3.
10:20pm:  THEY SCORE!!!  DATSYUK MAKES AN UNREAL SPIN MOVE AND DROPS IT BACK TO LIDSTROM AND THE CAPTAIN BURIES IT HIGH!  At 13:52, Lidstrom, with his third goal in the last 2 games, puts Detroit ahead!  Check it--the official game sheet gives the goal to Tomas Holmstrom from Lidstrom and Datsyuk--so the ruling must be that Holmstrom deflected it.  And now the Sharks go on the power play.  God, this is exciting, isn't it?  Justin Abdelkader is off for elbowing at 14:55.  What a time to go off.  A stupid penalty to take at the worst possible time. Hanging in the balance is one of the best periods in Wings history, not to mention the game, the series and the season.  4:45 LEFT, THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 4, SAN JOSE 3.
10:28pm:  The Wings kill the penalty and Abdelkader can breathe again.  The rest of us can't, though.  We are at 1:00 to go and the Sharks pull their goalie.
10:31pm:  Time out, Detroit with 14.3 to go.  Face off coming up in the Detroit zone.  14 seconds between Detroit and Game 6 in Detroit Tuesday night.  Wow.
10:33pm:  THE WINGS WIN! No....icing with 2.4 to go and that face off comes right back into the Detroit zone.  This is tough to take.  Sharks are trying to get more time on the clock.  They call time out.  Now 2.9 left as the clock is adjusted.
10:35pm:  The puck goes into the corner and the clock runs out and the Wings are back in the series, trailing 3 games to two.  Oh. My. God.  They were down 3-1 in the third period.  They were done, smoked like a trout and they scored 3 goals in 12:58 to win!  See you at the Joe on Tuesday night everybody.  What a game.  What a result!
FINAL SCORE: DETROIT 4, SAN JOSE 3.
10:43pm:  Just a quick note at the finish.  The Wings were outshot tonight 42-22 and had only six shots on goal in the third period.  They scored on half of those six shots.  One of the announcers said the Wings have never won a Game 5 on the road when trailing 3 games to 1, until tonight.  Also, Franzen's final shift of the game ended with a little under 7 minutes to go in the second period.  He did not play at all after that, including therefore, the entire third period when the game was on the line.  It makes you wonder if he will be able to play the night after next, which leaves Juri Hudler or Mike Modano as possible replacements.  Wouldn't that be something if Modano got the shot and reached back to the glory days and played a key role?  Well, we'll see.  Hell of a game and a hell of night tonight.