MVN - Most Valuable Network

Former ‘Hockeytown’ Detroit dominates the Wild in 5-0 win

Wednesday’s night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers left Wild fans with a very bad taste in their mouth. While the effort was certainly not their worst of the season, the team’s execution (or the lackthereof) of the power play drew the ire of many fans back home in the State of Hockey. The team was serenaded to boo’s on more than one occasion, as well as Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom earning a rather loud ‘Bronx cheer’ after making a save late in the 3rd period after giving up a very soft goal from beyond the blueline. However, Minnesota does have one major feather in its cap when Sports Illustrated’s Larry Farber named St. Paul the new Hockeytown. Take that Motor City! Tonight’s game against the Red Wings, does not have Wild fans feeling too optimistic as traditionally the team has not done well when playing in Detroit. Could the Wild surprise the State of Hockey with a big road win tonight?

Right from the drop of the puck, the Wild clearly wanted to slow things down and attempt to force the Red Wings to play a game where they were not utilizing their great team speed. However, this ’slow it down’ approach made it seem early on as if the Wild were simply hoping to avoid getting blown out as opposed to generating much in the way of chances on Detroit’s Dominik Hasek. The Red Wings were peppering shots on Josh Harding, who almost seemed to be playing the role of sacrificial lamb to the Western Conference’s best team. Early on Harding was up to the task, coming up with big saves as his defense seemed to give up prime opportunities to Detroit’s potent duo of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. The game simply seemed to be played at two speeds; lethargic for the boys representing the State of Hockey and very fast for the Detroit Red Wings and Wild could only seem to shadow but seldom catch the speedy forwards of Motor City. One of the Wild’s few scoring chances was a wrap around chance by Brian Rolston, but Hasek was able to drop down and make the save. Minnesota had just 4 shots on goal for the whole period compared to Detroit’s 10. The Red Wings would tally late, when Henrik Zetterberg would rifle shot from the right circle over the shoulder of Harding to give Detroit a 1-0 lead going into the 2nd period.

The dominance for the Red Wings would become even more evident on the scoreboard in the 2nd period. Minnesota felt as if it would get some level of reprieve when the Red Wings earned their first penalty when Brett Lebda was called for hooking. Yet, it would hardly appear to be a power play as the Wild struggled to get it set up in the Detroit zone, and to make matters worse some lazy passes would end in a disastrous turnover. On the turnover, Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg would race in on Harding as Zetterberg lit the lamp for a 2nd time to put Detroit up 2-0. With the pain of the shorthanded goal still very fresh, it would only get worse when Jiri Hudler would take a pass from Valterri Filppula off of the rush and he’d fire a laser of a shot that found the twine to make it 3-0 Red Wings just over a minute after Zetterberg’s tally. Minnesota’s struggles would continue, when Stephane Veilleux was given a hooking minor. On the ensuing power play, the Red Wings would deliver some tremendous passes until it got to the stick of Niklas Kronvall who fired a shot on Harding that he stopped but Johan Franzen was right there on the doorstep to chip the rebound into the Wild net and put the Red Wings up 4-0. Perhaps feeling the team needed some sort of boost, Todd Fedoruk would drop the gloves with Detroit’s Aaron Downey, and it would be a good back and forth affair. Fedoruk would land a few nice rights, but so would Downey and both combatants would tumble to the ice. However during the scrum aged veteran Chris Chelios would earn a slashing call giving the Wild a power play. Minnesota did seem to have more energy after Fedoruk’s fight, as the Wild would work the power play with much more purpose and James Sheppard would give a great pass to Marian Gaborik who would have a great close-in chance on Hasek but “the Dominator” came up with the big save. Minnesota was clearly not even close to being in this game, being outscored, out played as evidenced by being out shot 10 to 22 going into 3rd.

Detroit did not waste much time adding to their already commanding lead scoring just 41 seconds into the 3rd, when Henrik Zetterberg would score on a great pass by Pavel Datsyuk to earn his hat trick, the 2nd one given up by the Wild this season. Perhaps satisfied after Zetterberg’s hat trick, the pace would lessen in intensity as both teams tried working its 3rd and 4th lines more. One player who would get lots of time late in the period was James Sheppard who seemed to be working well with Todd Fedoruk. The Wild would try to get a goal for pride reasons, and Detroit was determined to preserve the shutout. Late in the 3rd, Marian Gaborik would race in on a breakaway, but Dominik Hasek raced out towards Gaborik sending the speedy Slovak flying head over heels landing on his back to deny the chance. Hasek would earn a tripping penalty, and Minnesota would press hard to get the pride goal but to no avail and the Wild would lose 5-0 to Detroit.

This game was lost from virtually the moment the puck was dropped to start the game. Minnesota was completely dominated in every aspect of the game, as the Red Wings asserted their dominance in the Western Conference. Detroit controlled the game, peppering Josh Harding with 34 shots while the Wild only was able to put up a meager 19 shots on Dominik Hasek. Harding did not have a bad game, and often times he had to have felt as if he was left all alone by the Wild’s defense. Even though Minnesota’s defense did little to help Harding, they did not creating virtually any offensive pressure on the Red Wings for much of the game.

Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire had this to say, “Our top players were not even close, not even to their top players, we couldn’t make a damn pass, it was that simple.” Clearly the coach was not happy, but he was quick to give Detroit plenty of credit for their great performance, “these guys are probably the best team in the league right now.”

Minnesota’s road trip does not get any easier as they travel to Columbus, a team they also struggle to beat at the Blue Jackets’ Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets, are also a very stingy team defensively which could spell doom for a sputtering Wild offense.

Wild Notes:

~ Wild lineup tonight was as follows: Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, Eric Belanger, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Dominic Moore, Mark Parrish, Branko Radivojevic, Stephane Veilleux, Todd Fedoruk, Aaron Voros, James Sheppard, Nick Schultz, Kim Johnsson, Sean Hill, Brent Burns, Martin Skoula, Kurtis Foster, and Niklas Backstrom backed up Josh Harding. Matt Foy and Keith Carney were the healthy scratches. Petteri Nummelin, Mikko Koivu, and Derek Boogaard are out of the lineup with injuries.

~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Henrik Zetterberg, 2nd Star Dominik Hasek, 3rd Star Johan Franzen

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 9:16 pm and is filed under 2007-08 Game Reports & Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.