2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Blackhawks & Red Wings Review

Game 1 kicked off Wednesday night in Chicago. A fast paced first period led to a powerplay for Chicago, in which Marian Hossa buried a shot to give the Hawks a one goal lead 9 minutes into the game. 2 minutes later, Damien Brunner scored on his own rebound to tie the game. The Wings outplayed Chicago in the first, but the Blackhawks weren’t going to allow it to happen again. The Hawks controlled the second and third period outshooting the Wings 35-14 in the final two periods. The second period went scoreless and the game was tied going into the third. Jimmy Howard was standing tall for the Red Wings until Johnny Oduya scored to give the Hawks a one goal lead. Marcus Kruger scored an awkward goal a few minutes later, when the puck hopped onto the back of the net, and ended up out front where Howard was unable to make the save. The Hawks up 3-1, kept the pressure on the Wings. Coach Mike Babcock pulled Howard, leading to a goal for Patrick Sharp who scored on the empty net to get his third point of the game. The Hawks looked dominate in the first game of the series, and they took a 1-0 lead over the Wings.

The puck dropped for game two on Saturday afternoon. Patrick Kane scored the first goal of the game to give the Blackhawks the 1-0 lead when Patrick Sharp stole the puck from Brendan Smith and fed the puck to Michal Handzus who gave the puck to Kane for the one timer. The second period went a little differently for the Blackhawks. Giveaways gave the Wings multiple chances on Cory Crawford. Damien Brunner tipped Jakub Kindl‘s shot into the net almost 3 minutes into the period. The game went back and forth, but Detroit controlled the period for the most part. With just under 4 minutes remaining, Brendan Smith scored to give the Wings the 2-1 lead. Henrik Zetterberg made a great play to get control of the puck and fed the pass through defender Duncan Keith‘s legs to Smith for the goal. The second ended with Detroit in control of the game and the score. Johan Franzen scored to give the Wings the 3-1 lead when Jonathanval Ericsson gave Franzen a beautiful pass to put Franzen on a break away with about 12:30 left in regulation. Valtteri Filppula added another goal for Detroit to give them the lead 4-1 when Zetterberg dropped the puck to Filppula on a 3 on 2 for the goal. The game would end with the same score to tie the series up at 1.

Detroit’s third line has continued to scored and continued to play well. Damien Brunner has two goals in the series so far, Gustav Nyquist and Joakim Andersson have also been playing well and with a lot of energy, and they’re giving Mike Babcock great depth. Henrik Zetterberg has continued to play well into this series, he had 2 assists in game two to add to his total of 10 points thus far. Chicago looked great in game one, they looked ready to take control of this series and close Detroit out early. The defense was solid in game one, they capitalized on scoring chances, and they controlled the final 40 minutes of play. Detroit bounced back though, and proved that they won’t be walked through like the Wild. This is going to be a great series, and now it looks like Detroit believes they can win. Game 3 will be on Monday night in Detroit. Chicago failed to capture their advantage of home ice, and now go into Hockeytown with the series tied at 1 a piece, and Detroit now has home ice for the next to games.