5-0

The Detroit Red Wings almost had a hiccup Friday night in a very close 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. As expected, Anaheim played uber physical and Detroit out skilled them.

The scoring started with Corey Perry and the Ducks as he rifled a slap shot past Ozzie. Later in the period Ducks goon (i know they are all goons), Mike Brown, leveled Jiri Hudler in what can only be deemed as a vicious case of interference as he busted Jiri's face up. A 5 minute penalty followed which gave Johan Franzen the chance he needed to score a goal and run Jonas Hiller over. The first period ended in a very tight 1-1 tie.


The second period was extremely fast paced as the Wings ripped shot after shot at Jonas Hiller aka the unknown Jo Bro. The next goal came close to midway through the period when Nicklas Lidstrom ripped a slap shot from the point on the power play...with a screen from Homer of course. The Finnish Flash tied the game at 2 with a power play goal from "his spot". Teemu Selanne always seems to score on us, it must be a curse. Again, the second period ended in a tie.

The third period went back and forth as much of this game went, but when things go back and forth in the playoffs, it is the Wings that always seem come out on top. This could not be more true as Nicklas Lidstrom scored on a dandy rebound, in which the original shot came from...well himself. As Franzen crashed the net the captain was already making his way towards the open puck and a game winning goal.

This game was pretty much what I expected after a long layoff from the Wings and that is that they started a little slow, but really picked up the pace. Also, the game was extremely physical, but what was surprising was the physical play of the defensemen of the future, Jonathan Ericsson. He got in scuffles, played physical on the penalty kill, and just threw his body around the entire game. Look for more head hunting from the Ducks and look for more W's from the Wings.