Saturday, April 24, 2010

Red Wings Beat Phoenix, Can Eliminate Coyotes on Sunday

By AJ Petronzi
In Play Magazine

The Detroit Red Wings broke a 1-1 tie in the third period to go on to a 4-1 win and take a 3-2 lead in the series.
Phoenix faces elimination at the Joe this Sunday.
Photo Jack Rosenberg/In Play! Magazine

Drew Miller was first on the board tonight with a goal that was kicked in by Phoenix’s Vernon Fiddler. Ed Jovanovski tied the game during the second. In the third, Tomas Holmstrom and Pavel Datsyuk scored two quick goals before Henrik Zetterberg scored an empty netter to finish the night.

The Red Wings played 40 solid minutes of hockey tonight. They were outplayed during the second period but were bailed out by Jimmy Howard, who played a great game tonight. Detroit just dominated play in the first and third periods. Nicklas Lidstrom was on the ice for all four goals scored by Detroit. Today Lidstrom was not announced as a finalist for the Norris Trophy for just the second time since 1997.

In Play! Man of the Game: Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk won the face-off that lead to Holmstrom’s goal and netted his own shortly afterwards. He also recorded stats in every column on the sheet today except he failed to record a hit or giveaway.