Red Wings hang on, force Game 7 with 4-3 OT win

 

By Michael Caples –

DETROIT – The Red Wings have lived to see another day.

With the season on the line, the Red Wings managed to overcome blowing a two-goal lead late in the third period when captain Henrik Zetterberg scored the game-winner just over a minute into overtime.

The 4-3 win means the first-round series between the Wings and Ducks will go a full seven games, with the decisive game taking place Sunday night in Anaheim.

“Well, you know, I’ve been fortunate enough to win some in Game 7 and lose some in Game 7,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “I’ve lost at home and on the road, and won that way too, so it’s a big game. We’ve got to enjoy our evening here and have a nice travel day tomorrow and get ready to play. We’re excited, we’ve said all along, the shorter we can make this series, the more advantage to us. You can’t make it any shorter than this.”

Zetterberg had a pair of goals, while Pavel Datsyuk and Dan Cleary (originally credited to Justin Abdelkader) also scored for the Red Wings in the Friday night win.

Jimmy Howard stopped 34 of 37 shots to pick up the crucial win for Detroit.

For the Red Wings, it was the ‘Eurotwins’ duo of Zetterberg and Datsyuk delivering when the team needed it most.

Datsyuk scored the game’s first goal after Zetterberg fought for possession of the puck in the Anaheim end, before setting up his linemate for a backhander from the slot.

Kyle Palmieri evened the game halfway through the second period when his shot hit the post behind Howard, bounced off Detroit defenseman Brendan Smith, and landed in the back of the Wings’ net.

Zetterberg’s first goal of the series came at the 6:19 mark of the third period, when his first of two slapshot goals got through a crowd in front of the Anaheim goal. Mikael Samuelsson and Datsyuk picked up the assists on the play.

Dan Cleary ended up getting credit for the goal that increased the Wings’ lead to 3-1 in the third, after Justin Abdelkader fired a shot from the hashmarks along the boards that hit Cleary and bounced into the back of the goal. It was originally credited to Abdelkader (who was playing in his first game since serving a two-game suspension), and changed after the contest to Cleary.

Yet the Wings weren’t able to sit on the lead. With four minutes remaining in regulation, Valtteri Filppula tried to send the puck around the Red Wings’ goal, and instead found the stick of Emerson Etem. The Ducks’ forward had an easy wraparound goal on a surprised Howard.

Then, less than a minute later, Kyle Quincey lost his footing behind the Red Wings’ goal, leading to a turnover, and eventually a rebound goal for Bobby Ryan to tie the game and shock the Joe Louis Arena crowd.

The teams played to a 3-3 tie in the final minutes of regulation.

“Well you’ve just got to flush it out…what’s done is done,” Zetterberg said after the game, when asked how his team felt heading into the fourth period. “You’re in overtime, it doesn’t really matter how you got there.”

And Zetterberg was the one who would end it. Datsyuk won a face-off in the Anaheim zone a minute into overtime and Zetterberg grabbed the puck to pass it to Niklas Kronwall. After a fake shot, Kronwall sent the puck back to Zetterberg, who fired a slapshot from the top of the circle all the way past Hiller to win the game for Detroit.

“I played it to Nick, and Nick made a nice play there, so I had a little time on the wall, and I saw a lot of bodies out front,” Zetterberg said. “It was just fire and hope for the best, and it went in.”

The win means that the series shifts back to Anaheim for a decisive Game 7. Puck drops at 10 p.m. ET.

“I think everyone is excited and we’re just happy to force a Game 7,” Abdelkader said. “Anything can happen in a Game 7. We have a lot of experience, a lot of guys who have been through Game 7s and I think you can kind of say that our last four games were kind of Game 7s, win or go home. So I think we’re ready for it. We’re excited for our opportunity to hop back on that plane and head back West.”