Wings Take Game 1 Against The Coyotes

Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen will get most of the media love for the Wings game 1 win tonight, and rightly so for how well they played. But i was very impressed with how Jim Howard played in net for his team, and he was the reason those players were in the position to win the game for the Wings. Howie got beat early by a really well placed shot from Kyle Turris but on a big 5 on 3 penalty kill he made a great glove save on the same type of shot by another Phoenix player. Howie would then make a handful of great saves after that to keep the Coyotes lead to just 1. Howie eventually would hand the game off to the "Magic Man" and the "Mule" in the 2nd period and they made sure to put their mark on it. 

Pavel was great on and off the puck tonight making his patented moves in the offensive zone to set up chances for his teammates as well as getting back on the back check causing turnovers to shut down the Coyotes offense. The "Mule" was a force tonight, he was as assertive as he has been this season which bodes well for the Wings for the remainder of this series, and the rest of the playoffs. Franzen really helped to create both of the Wings first 2 goals tonight. On the first one he crashed the net from the goal line causing the Phoenix defense to react to him which allowed Datsyuk to pick up the rebound and make a pretty little wrap around move to beat his Russian friend to tie the game. The second goal was vintage Mule with Franzen skating in over the blue line and ripping a wicked wrista over Bryzgalovs shoulder to give his team the lead. Rafalski would round out the 2nd period scoring giving his team its 3rd goal of the period when he scored on a slap shot during a powerplay at the end of the period. Jiri Hudler got in on the fun shortly after the start of the 3rd period when he took a page out of Franzens game by unloading a sniper shot under the cross bar to beat Bryzgalov for the Wings 4th goal of the game.

It was a great way to start off the playoffs and this series. Not only playing well on defense and the pk, but also playing hard and fast and showing how dangerous the team can be offensively and on the powerplay. The Wings and the Coyotes will have two off days between tonight's game 1 and game 2 which is scheduled for a Saturday afternoon start in Detroit.

Goodnight from the greatest sports city in the world and did i mention i love this time of the year because i love this time of the year.

Drew in the D