Zetterberg’s pair of goals lifts Red Wings to season-saving win

By Michael Caples –

DETROIT – When the Red Wings needed it most, their captain delivered.

On a power play six minutes into the third period with the game tied 1-1, Henrik Zetterberg curled just inside the Anaheim blue line, wound up, and fired a shot past Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller.

And when the lead built from that goal didn’t last, Zetterberg scored again – this time in overtime.

His second blast of the evening got through a crowd once again, and past Hiller at the 1:04 mark of the first overtime to give his team a season-saving Game 6 win, by a score of 4-3.

The Wings’ captain tried to pass some of the credit along to Niklas Kronwall when asked about his game-winner; Kronwall was able to get the puck to Zetterberg after a face-off win in a play that gave Zetterberg the time and space necessary for a shot on goal.

“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 game-winner came when things weren’t looking very promising for Hockeytown. After building a 3-1 lead in the third thanks to Zetterberg and Dan Cleary, the Red Wings imploded in the final four minutes of regulation.

First, it was Valtteri Filppula sending the puck behind the Red Wings’ goal to the awaiting stick of Emerson Etem, who buried the puck behind a surprised Jimmy Howard to pull the Ducks within one.

Then, less than a minute later, Kyle Quincey lost his footing behind the Red Wings goal, which led to a turnover, and an eventual rebound goal by Bobby Ryan.

Yet it was Zetterberg who ended the game in overtime, and ended it quickly.

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

For Zetterberg, it was his first time in a playoff elimination game as Red Wings captain. The Wings’ leader said it didn’t feel much different than other years, however.

“I don’t think it’s any different from not wearing the ‘C’,” Zetterberg said. “It’s an elimination game, you want to keep playing, you don’t want to be done. I think everyone in here felt the same way. Howie was big again for us in net, and it’s a team game.”

The Wings’ captain also factored into the game’s first goal – setting up Pavel Datsyuk for a backhander from the slot at the 18:48 mark of the first period.

Zetterberg said that the adversity that the Wings faced in the regular season – their push to get into the playoffs in the first place – have helped Detroit deal with situations like Friday night’s elimination game.

“It’s not often that things come easy,” Zetterberg said. “You’ve got to work for it, that’s what you have to do. I think we’ve gone through a lot of things here this year, a lot of new guys, new faces, and we’ve been playing really good.”

Coach Mike Babcock said that even though Zetterberg hadn’t scored yet in the series, he had been playing very well for the Wings, and it didn’t come as any surprise that he had the game-winner Friday night.

“Well you know, he’s been good all series,” Babcock said. “Someone asked me today about [Corey] Perry and Zetterberg. They’ve both been good, they just didn’t score. And the longer you play the better chance you get point-wise, not just compete-wise, and he obviously scored some important goals for us tonight – a power-play goal and the winner.”

Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said he was impressed with the play of both Zetterberg and Datsyuk on the evening.

“Well, I guess if you’re from Detroit it’s just a matter of time,” Boudreau said. “He’s a really good player, but I didn’t think ‘OK, it’s Game 6, he hasn’t scored yet, so he’s automatically going to score.’ But, he did get two. I thought they were both savable goals, but him and Datsyuk played a whale of a game.”