Spartans Make It Two In A Row In OT At Home-Wings Split Home And Home With Columbus

Instead of writing about each game individually of the Detroit-Columbus home and home series i thought i could talk about them after the series wrapped up tonight in Detroit, i had know idea they would be so similar. Friday night was another game when the Wings didn't start "on-time", as head coach Mike Babcock likes to say, and the Blue Jackets took an early 2-0 lead. The Wings just can't get out of the way of this injury bug lately and it came up to bite them again last night when Jim Howard went down with an apparent knee injury (Howard is day to day with a sore knee) and net front presence Tomas Holmstrom left the game with a broken hand (Holmstrom is out for 3-4 weeks with the injury). The Wings kept battling and found a way to tie it up and send the game into overtime. Both teams would trade scoring chances in the overtime period and the game would be decided in a shootout which was the Wings 3rd shootout in 5 games. Joey McDonald came on in relief for the injured Jim Howard and didn't allow a goal until Antoine Vermette won it for the Blue Jackets.

Tonight was another game that the Wings didn't start "on-time as head coach Mike Babcock like to say with the Blue Jackets jumping out to an early 2-0 win (sound familiar?). This time though the Red Wings would tie it up before the end of the 1st period on goals from Valtteri Filppula and Drew Miller. The teams would trade leads and ties for the rest of the game Jonathan Ericsson, Brian Rafalski, and Kris Draper would add goals for their team to put them up 5-4 in the 3rd period. The most underrated player in the league and the one player that scares me the most as a fan Rick Nash scored with the goalie pulled to send this game into overtime (i feel like i've seen this before). But this time Johan Franzen would make sure that his team wouldn't go to another shootout when he scored on an absolute snipe shot off of a great feed by Zetterberg to win it for the Wings by a final of 6-5. The Red Wings head back out on the road on Tuesday when they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Pen's in their new arena. The injury report update for both teams are that Jim Howard is thinking that he will be ready to go on Tuesday night and Sydney Crosby is still unknown with post-concussion symptoms.

The Spartans hoops squad had to come back and win in overtime in their last two games at home. First it was a gritty comeback win against Wisconsin on Thursday night with Draymond Green leading the way with another one of his double-doubles this season. This afternoon was no different, Northwestern gave the Spartans all they could handle in a game that saw over 10 lead changes. Draymond Green tied the game again on two big free-throws with under a minute to play before fouling out in the overtime period. Freshman and Senior guards Keith Appling and Kalin Lucas filled up the scoring column for their team today scoring 19 and 18 points respectively, the 19 points Appling scored setting his career high. Turnovers reared their ugly head for the spartans again today with the team turning the ball over 16 times, which gave the Wildcats way to many opportunities to stay in the game. The Spartans will try to carry the momentum they gained from these two overtime wins with them when they play Illinois on Tuesday night at Illinois.

Goodnight from the greatest sports city in the world and please beat the Jets tomorrow Patriots i can't stand Rex or any of his players.

Drew in the D