Thursday, May 2, 2013

1st Round Playoff Matchup for Detroit

Well, the Red Wings have extended their playoff streak to 22 years, now the question is how deep of a run can they make this year?  The opening round opponent for Detroit are the Anaheim Ducks, the second seed in the Western Conference and winner of the Pacific Division. 
      The Ducks were 30-12-6 good for 66 points.  They scored 140 goals and gave up 118 a goal differential of +22, their powerplay is working at 21.5% 4th in the NHL.  Their leading scorers are Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, Getzlaf had 15 goals 34 assists for 49 points, Perry had 15 goals and 21 assists for 36 points.  The Ducks also had six other players with at least 20 points; Bobby Ryan, Saku Koivu, Teemu Selanne, Francois Beauchemin, Andrew Cogliano and Kyle Palmieri.  The Ducks split time for their goalies with Viktor Fasth getting 25 starts and Jonas Hiller getting 26 starts, however Hiller will be the playoff goalie.  Fasth was 15-6-2 with a 2.18 GAA and a save percentage of .921, Hiller was15-6-4 with a 2.36 GAA and a save percentage of .913.
      The Red Wings were 24-16-8 good for 56 points.  They scored 124 goals and gave up 115 a differential of +9, their powerplay is creeping along at 18.4% 15th in the NHL.  Their leading scorers are Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, with Datsyuk getting 15 goals 34 assists for 49 points and Zetterberg with 11 goals 37 assists for 48 points.  The Wings also have three other players with at least 20 points; Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall and Damien Brunner.  Jimmy Howard got the bulk of the starts in goal for the Wings and will be the playoff starter.  In 42 games Howard was 21-13-7 with a 2.13 GAA and a save percentage of .923.
      If Detroit can neutralize Perry and Getzlaf and make sure that Ryan=, Koivu and Selanne don't pick up the slack.  If they can keep the puck away from Beauchemin and Sheldon Souray at the points on the powerplay.  If they can solve the Hiller riddle, get their powerplay on track and win the battles for loose pucks, then they can make it a good series, if not then they will be preparing for their move to the Eastern Conference earlier then they would like.
      Because I have bee slacking in my blog posting the first game of this series has already been played, so let's take a look at it.
      The Ducks won the contest 3-1 but that score is a little misleading.  It was tied 1-1 until 1:29 of the third period when the Ducks scored, they added an empty netter to make it 3-1.
      The game started at 10:30(EDT) in front of a crowd of 17,200 at the Pond in Anaheim.  The Wings came out flat and the Ducks dominated play in the first period.  The game remained scoreless until Jordin Tootoo was called for a cross check at the 10:24 mark.  The Ducks scored four seconds into the powerplay on a tally by Nick Bonino assisted Cam Fowler.  The Wings tied the score 5:41 later on a powerplay goal by Dan Cleary assisted by Jakub Kindl and Patrick Eaves.  The first period ended with the score tied at one.  The second period was scoreless with both teams getting two powerplay chances.  The period ended with the Ducks on the powerplay after Kindl was called for delay of game for shooting the puck over the glass.  The Duck capitalized on the powerplay with Selanne scoring 1:29 into the period, assisted by Ben Lovejoy and Matt Beleskey.  The Wings were unable to crack the armor of Duck goalie Hiller and pulled Howard for the extra attacker.  Anaheim put a exclamation point on the game when Francois Beauchemin scored assisted by Ryan Getzlaf and Daniel Winnik. 
      The three stars of the game were Teemu Selanne, Jonas Hiller and Saku Koivu.  The Ducks were 2-4 on the powerplay while the Wings were 1-4 and the Ducks out shot the Wings 27-22.  The second game of the best of seven series is Thursday 5/2/13 at 9:00(EDT)     

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