Detroit Red Wings vs Anaheim Ducks: Recap

After a victory against the Boston Bruins to start the season, the Detroit Red Wings faced off against another strong opponent in the Anaheim

Mighty

Ducks. The Wings looked great throughout the game, but fell in dramatic fashion to a blown call with twenty seconds left in the game. The Wings’ forecheck was great all game and the penalty kill has remained unblemished, however, two costly miscues behind the net lead to the first two Anaheim goals.

1st Period:

The scoreless first period saw tight checking, sloppy hockey from both teams. The Wings’ shots were doubled by the Ducks, but the Wings had a great scoring chance on the power play. Andrej Nestrasil did some nice board work, after faking the pass he held onto the puck and shielded the defender enabling him to pass to a streaking Tomas Tatar in the slot. Tatar nailed the post, giving the Wings their best chance of the period. Overall it was a sloppy period in which the big names were relatively invisible.

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2nd Period:

The tight checking first period disappeared into an up and down open hitting second. The Ducks tallied first after a terrible misplay by Jimmy Howard behind the net leading to a ghastly turnover and Getzlaf putting it into the back of the net. After the Ducks took a 1-0 lead, the Wings took over the period. Kesler laid a nasty hit to the head of Brendan Smith and Luke Glendening took exception to it, earning himself two in the sin bin. However, the Wings stellar penalty kill went to work and came out unscathed.

The Wings power play had an opportunity halfway through the period and it was the second unit that had the better scoring chance. With all four of the Wings’ forwards behind the net as time ran out of the power play, all alone Nestrasil moved to the slot and picked up a puck shoveled out by Tomas Jurco right in front of the goaltender, but to no avail. Nesty has looked great so far, showing great board work and knack for getting into space.

Evening the score at 1-1 was none other than Luke Glendening with his second ever regular season NHL goal. Niklas Kronwall smoothly moved around a forward at the blue line, slid a pass to Abby who hit a recently changed Glendening whose backhand beat the goalie shortside. Luke ended the period on a short-handed breakaway, but was unable to put his backhand in the net a second time.

The second period belonged to the Wings who caught up in shots and showed some fantastic physicality. Darren Helm, Brendan Smith, and Justin Abdelkater all laid some tremendous hits on the ice. The Ducks will start the third on a power play thanks to Henrik Zetterberg‘s overzealousness in setting a pick in the trapezoid.

3rd Period:

The third was a wide open affair. Nyquist scored a world-class goal on a long feed from Zetterberg. While the Ducks were changing, Z lead Nyquist down the left side, Nyquist faked a slap shot and then roofed a snap shot into the right corner of the goal. Quickly after the Wings tied it, Matt Beleskey capitalized on a Wings’ turnover behind the net. However, the real story of the third belongs to the referees: With twenty seconds left in a 2-2 game Getzlaf hooks Kronwall and cuts in on Howard, backhanding it for the game winner. Absolutely deflating for the Wings who were robbed of a chance to win the game in overtime.

The Wings played a strong game and the PK has looked unbelievable so far this year. A lot of positives for them to take away from this game after facing a strong opponent. Unfortunate that the game ended in controversy.

My player of the game.

Gustav Nyquist was absolutely unbelievable in the third, but the player of the game goes to Luke Glendening. Luke was a power house in the face off circle and scored his second NHL regular season goal. His speed and tenacity is quickly earning him praise by Wings fans everywhere.