So the Detroit Red Wings had a chance to win the Stanley Cup last night at home in Game 5 of the series, but lost 4-3 in the third overtime. It was an incredible game to watch after the first period until the players started tiring noticeably in the second overtime, at which point the quality of play diminished.
The Wings started the game with probably their worst period of hockey since the Nashville series, although in this case the culprits were turnover-prone skaters rather than a leaky goalie. The turnover madness continued for the first two minutes of the second period, when Detroit scored on a somewhat flukey and weak goal. But hey, we’ll take it. And the Wings had to feel lucky that they were only down 2-1. They had been completely outplayed by Pittsburgh up to that point. The only thing keeping them in the game were some strong goaltending from Osgood and a number of missed nets on good chances for the Penguins.
The rest of the second period was evenly matched hockey, with good chances on both sides. From the very beginning of the third period, however, it was all Detroit. Datsyuk made an incredible individual effort to fight through some checks along the boards at the Pittsburgh blue line early in the period, showing great stick strength to maintain the puck, then made a characteristic “How’d he do that?!” move to get in on night. A great finish resulted in only a near-goal, as Pavel hit the crossbar but could not find the net. I was wondering at the time whether it was not to be last night for the Wings, but they continued to pour on the heavy pressure, outshooting Pittsburg by something like 15-2 in the period at one point. The reward was two goals and a lead entering the final five minutes, with the Stanley Cup theirs upon victory.
Right around the time the broadcast showed the Cup handler man polishing the Cup one last time in his white gloves, the Wings downshifted a bit to a more defensive style for those last few minutes. That was the right call given the circumstances, as you do not want to give the opposition a scoring chance due to a defenseman pinching in his offensive zone. Pittsburgh pulled the goalie at approximately the one-minute mark; Zetterberg was skating in center ice with 50 seconds to go and a chance to ice it with an empty-netter, but the checking was too tight and he could not convert. And Pittsburgh gained control in the Detroit zone. And then Pittsburgh scored with 34 seconds left.
Talk about deflating. I’d spent the entire third period tensed up, eyes wide open, from the excitement, the stakes, the dominant performance by the Wings. Ten years ago I probably would have thrown my remote control and then had to go search for the battery cover and the batteries to resume watching the game. After enough sporting fandom disappointments, you just sigh loudly and hope for the best.
The overtimes were entertaining and mostly dominated by the Wings. But shots on goal don’t convert to goal at some pre-determined ratio, so a 57:28 shots edge after 2 overtimes ultimately just means that the disappointment is greater if you do not wind up the winner. The second and third OTs were evenly matched for the most part, once fatigue became evident and the Wings’ spurt from the third period and first OT died out. Apart from outstanding goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury in the Pittsburgh net, most of note in the overtimes was the horrible, inexplicable officiating. Two more goaltender interference penalties on the Wings after all the laughable interference calls against them this playoff run? In overtime of a Stanley Cup game? And yet the usual interference and grabbing goes uncalled, except for one penalty against the Penguins that was not particularly egregious and did not take place on a key part of the ice.
One hopes that Jiri Hudler is remembered more for his strong game (alongside Filpulla, Franzen and Datsyuk as the class of the Wings forwards last night) than for his lacksadaisical stick control that led to a 4-minute penalty for highsticking in the third OT. How Hudler’s gaffe goes down depends on Game 6 and perhaps Game 7 of this series. After last night, his penalty and the subsequent power play gave Pittsburgh another man advantage, and they converted on this one.