Lightning Zap Detroit's 6 game win streak

 In Tampa, Florida the Detroit Red Wings (28-12-9) who have been on a six game winning streak, take on a ever so hot Tampa Bay Lightning (31-15-4) team in a battle for the Atlantic. Meaning the winner of this game takes first place in the Atlantic division, a place where both teams would like to be.

In the first period the Red Wings get off to a bad start with a no call hold of Riley Sheahan, results in the first goal of the night scored by rookie forward Cedric Paquette who scores is 7th of the season. Then Detroit finally settles down and looks for someone to try and light a spark for this team. When Darren Helm comes to answer the call and scores a nifty goal to beat Ben Bishop for his 9th of the season. As the period comes to the closing minutes Detroit has a defensive collapse in their own zone allowing none other then Paquette again to capitalize and score his second of the night to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead to end the first.

Second period it became all Lightning here as they go on a power play just four minutes in and Steven Stamkos with the howitzer blast to net is 27th goal of the season to give the Bolts a 3-1 lead. But it didn't stop there Red Wings go on a power play when they give the puck over causing a 2 on 1 skating back and then the red hot youngster Paquette decides to hold on to it to put it past Petr Mrazek and notching himself his first career hat trick (a hat trick is when a player scores three goals in one game) with the short handed goal giving the Lightning a 4-1. With the second period winding down Mark Barberio decides 4 is not enough and blasts the puck from the point scoring the lightnings 5th goal of the game and ending a night to forget for Petr Mrazek and having backup Tom McCollum come in to replace him to end the second period with Tampa Bay up 5-1.

In the third we go where Red Wings are down by four trying to get back on this game but Ben Bishop had other plans saving 13 shots alone in the period and 28 saves in the game not allowing anything else get past him in the game. While opposing goalie who had come in for Mrazek, Tom McCollum seemed to be the only Wing playing well this game as he registers 17 saves since he came in. But it is all for not as the Tampa Bay Lightning extend their home winning streak to 9 games and take over first place in the Atlantic division with the 5-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

Florida's Clawing Attempts Not Enough For Red Hot Detroit Team

In Sunrise, Florida the Detroit Red Wings (28-11-9) took on a Florida Panthers (20-15-10) team that is looking to find its way into a playoff spot currently ranked one spot away from the second wild card spot in the east. While the Detroit Red Wings are looking to capture first place in the Atlantic division with a win and a Tampa Bay Lightning loss.

In the first period the Red Wings looked to get of to a bad start when they started to take penalties early in the game. But yet it was still them who got on the board first with a short handed goal by Drew Miller off of a bad break for Florida when rookie Aaron Ekblad miss plays a clearing attempt by Detroit, which allow Miller to have a break away and put the wings up 1-0. Then a little over a minute later the Panthers gain momentum once the Detroit takes another penalty resulting in a 5-3 for the Panthers in which they capitalise with Aleksander Barkov scoring the power play goal. With Florida still on the power play forward Brandon Pirri sneaks one past goalie Petr Mrazek to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead to end the first.

To kick of the Second period it becomes all Red Wings from there where just 30 seconds into the game Henrik Zetterberg finds the back of the net for his 15th goal of the season to tie the game at 2's. Detroit then continues to pressure Florida in their zone forcing a costly turnover and a Luke Glendening goal to give the Wings a 3-2 lead mid way through the second period. The Wings then are able too capitalize two more unanswered scoring chances in the second with goals by former Panther Stephen Weiss and Luke Glendening who scores his second of the game forcing Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo (replaced by Al Montoya) out of the game after allowing 5 goals on 17 shots, and a 5-2 Red Wing lead. But the game is still far from over as the Panthers try to engage a spark as Detroit takes a bad penalty and Florida's Nick Bjugstad takes advantage to cut the lead to 5-3 to end the second.

In the third it is Florida pressuring all the way trying whatever they can to cut the lead down to one, as Brad Boyes answers the call ten minutes in and makes it only a 5-4 Detroit lead. As the game starts to wind down to a close with two and a half minutes to go the Red Wings take another bad penalty giving Florida and their ever so hot power play this game another opportunity, but this time they have an opportunity to tie up the game. Florida then makes it 6 on 4 by pulling goalie Montoya to throw everything they got at Detroit totalling for a 41-27 shot differential in favour of Florida, but all for not as Petr Mrazek shuts the door and the Detroit Red Wings hold off the Panthers Clawing attempts to hold on to the victory.

Red Wings take down Minnesota in a Wild fashion in Detroit

In Detroit, Michigan the Detroit Red Wings (27-11-9) coming into this game riding a 4 game win streak, look to take down a struggling Minnesota Wild (20-20-6) team. In  what will be each teams last game of the season before the all star break. 

In the first period it was a a pretty even game with the wings having a slight advantage on the score board with Temmu Pulkkinen scoring his first career NHL goal to start up the games first tally. Then came 2 quick goals from Mikko Koivu (Minnesota) to tie and Jonathan Ericsson (Detroit) to regain the lead to end the first.

Then in the second period it was all Red Wings as they look to close out the game and took full advantage scoring another 2 goals. Scored by young guns Gustav Nyquist and Xavier Ouellet forcing Minnesota to make a goalie change as Devan Dubnyk allowed 4 goals on just 10 shots on net, forcing them to roll the rest of the game with back up goalie Darcy Kuemper which seemed to be a good change in motivation Minnesota to stand tall the rest of the game to try and bring them back in the game.

In which the third period starts with Minnesota having a new goalie in net motivation swung their way in the third period with help from lack of deference and costly turn overs by Detroit causing them to derail in the third. Allowing Minnesota to come back into the came with three unanswered goals in the third scored by Thomas Vanek and Zach Parise scoring the second of the night and the game tying goal (from a costly turnover by Jonathan Ericsson) for Minnesota. Which forces the game to OT.

In the overtime period just like the majority of the game the Red Wings were out shot with a couple more turnovers by Detroit causing in an almost game winner off of none other then the man who was keeping the Wild in it the majority of the game Zach Parise looking for the hat trick but denied by Petr Mrazek, bringing the game to a shootout.

It all came down to the shootout in which Detroit hasn't done very well in all season looking for their second shootout victory of the season. First up is Parise for the Wild but it is stopped by Mrazek. Detroit then decides to go with the magic man himself Pavel Datsyuk to get them on the board and as Pavel does best he comes through for Detroit with a nice forehead to backhand goal. Up next for Minnesota is Koivu who had tallied their first goal of the game but again Mrazek is there to make the stop. All Detroit has to do now is score here to win the game or else Minnesota could get another chance to tie it up and the shooter Detroit decides to go with is is none other then Nyquist to try to end it on his bobble head night and he does as he dekes past Kuemper for the game. As the Red Wings Beat Minnesota in a Wild shootout Victory in Detroit.

New Posts

Hey there and welcome to Hockey Town Recap. Blog posts on the Detroit Red Wings will begin Wednesday January 21st to recap the Red Wings game the following Tuesday. Also don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinerest, and Tumblr.