Sunday, May 25, 2008

Go wings!

So ,to all you anti Red Wing fans =Take it and like it !
Detnews.com


Samuelsson leads way as Wings pound Penguins in Cup opener
Ted Kulfan / The Detroit News

So much talk about the superstars in this series, but it was unheralded Mikael Samuelsson who starred in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Samuelsson scored two unassisted goals on Saturday, leading the Red Wings to a 4-0 victory over the Penguins.

Dan Cleary (shorthanded) and Henrik Zetterberg (power play) added third-period goals as the Wings took a 1-0 series lead.
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"The feeling, it was great for sure," said Samuelsson, who scored his third and fourth goals of the playoffs. "I love to score goals, obviously."

Both goals were scored off Penguins turnovers.

"Two good teams out there, it's going to be small mistakes (deciding who) wins the game," Samuelsson said. "Everybody knows that."

Samuelsson scored on a wraparound in the second period, then beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury off a turnover between the hash marks early in the third period, giving the Wings a 2-0 lead.

The goals snapped a six-game goal-less (the entire Dallas series) streak for Samuelsson.

"Sammy is kind of a streak guy," coach Mike Babcock said. "When he scores he feels good about himself."

Chris Osgood made 19 saves for the shutout, his second of these playoffs and 12th of his postseason career. Osgood starred early in the game, making several big saves.

"We were tough on their defense in the last two periods of the game," Osgood said. "Made them skate back for a lot of pucks. We didn't turn pucks over as much as we did in the first (period)."

The Wings turned the momentum of the game around in the second period, outshooting the Penguins 16-4 and taking the lead on Samuelsson's first goal.

Pittsburgh had seven shots over the last two periods.

"We were nervous early," Babcock said. "I didn't think we executed early. Once we got the tempo up and got skating, things went our way better."

The Penguins will need to play better in Game 2.

"I don't know if it was nerves, but definitely that was the worst performance of the playoffs," Penguins coach Michel Therrien. "We didn't compete like we were supposed to be compete. It's a good lesson."

The game featured another controversial goalie interference call against Tomas Holmstrom.

An apparent Nicklas Lidstrom goal in the first period was disallowed because referee Dan O'Halloran ruled Holmstrom interfered with Fleury.

"It's a tough goal to get disallowed like that," Holmstrom said. "Fleury was coming out. I don't know, I've got to see the replay, but it was a tough call."

Is Holmstrom becoming a marked man in the eyes of referees?

"They gotta decide," Babcock said. "I just coach the game. I don't get to referee it."

The Wings did a fine job defending Penguins star forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (who turned the puck over on Samuelsson's second goal). Both young Penguins stars were largely silent throughout the evening, combining for four shots on goal (three by Crosby).

"The forwards did an outstanding job backchecking," Lidstrom said.

"They're a good hockey team," Crosby said. "They play tight. I don't think we came here expecting an easy series. For sure they played a tight checking game."

The Wings killed all five Pittsburgh power plays, including four in the first period.

"We had some puck luck on the first penalty kills," Babcock said. "Ozzie made some real good saves. But the game can be totally different and then we score first."

Therrien said, "We took some quality shots on the blue line. We didn't get the bounce around the net. It would have been nice to get confidence with our power play."

I wont predict a sweep ,its the finals , but I smell another Stanley cup for the Wings!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 comment:

kyros said...

I hope Detriot clobbers Pittsburg. I can't stand Pittsburg!