When I heard the result, I was thrilled with my decision. What an excellent game to avoid! The Lions led into the 2nd half until they gave up a horrible, somewhat-fluky punt return for a TD. Then they fumbled inside their own 20, and Dallas quickly converted to take a 9 point lead. Game over.
What made the game even better to avoid is the fact that the game-changing punt return never should've happened! The dude stepped out-of-bounds, but the Lions were too slow to challenge. All this would've driven me crazy yesterday. Yet, since it was all happening out-of-sight, out-of-mind, I couldn't care less.
Folks, living Lions-free on Sunday is the way to be. Instead, I was treated to two wins from Detroit's other teams.
The Wings - after blowing the game against the Wild on Friday - came out flat against Calgary. The Wings had difficulty controlling the tempo through two periods and found themselves down 2. As Mickey Redmond said, "The Red Wings spoil us by playing so well... it's strange to watch them get so outplayed." Well, the game changed dramatically in the 3rd, with the Wings outshooting the Flames 14-8. Early in the 3rd, on a power play, Datsyuk deflected a Lidstrom slapshot into the net to narrow the deficit to 3-2. Then a weak back-pass by Ericsson, Rafalski struggled to corral the puck. He lost his footing, and the Flames' Alex Tanguay stole it from him and scored. It was a bone-headed play by both Ericsson and Rafalski and could've spelled doom for the rallying Wings. Yet, Zetterberg countered shortly after. With 9 minutes to go, Zetterberg split two defenseman and flipped a backhand toward goal. The puck somehow fooled Mikka Kippersoff and slid under his legs. The Wings once again narrowed the deficit to one.
With four minutes left, the Wings had a power-play on a vicious hit to Filpulla. It seemed their last chance to equalize. But they could hardly gain the zone, let alone get a shot. Calgary played extremely poised and organized defense, completely frustrating the Wings possession game. Then, with just over two minutes left, Calgary took another penalty by almost decapitating Abdelkader. Normally, I'd say the Wings were fortunate to gain these power-plays, but the penalties were undeniably stupid. The Calgary players were way too undisciplined. These were not ticky-tacky calls late in the 3rd:
So, the Wings had a man-advantage with 2 minutes to go. Mickey Redmond said they'd pull Howard to get the 2- man advantage at about the 1:30 mark. He was right. I think that was a great call because the Wings were struggling with just the 1-man advantage. They needed that extra skater, and it made a difference.
For two straight minutes, the Wings commanded the Flames' zone, peppering shots on net. The Flames could not clear the puck until the 20 second mark when a back-pass bounced over Rafalski's stick. The Wings regained the zone but lost the puck once again with 7 seconds left. It seemed all was lost - but... wait!!... one of the Flames lost his stick! The Flames were really in trouble now. Datsyuk took the puck back into the zone and fended off the three Flames who still had their sticks. He fed an onrushing Zetterberg on the left side who one-timed the pass into the back of the net with just 3 ticks left on the clock!
Then, in the extra time, thanks to great board work by Darren Helm, Lidstrom found himself one-on-one with Kippersoff. He "pulled the string" as Redmond likes to say, meaning he faked a shot, pulled the puck back, and whipped the shot behind the goalie's back with his backhand. 5-4 Red Wings win.
It was just a wonderful, thrilling, come-from-behind win for the Wings.
Tomorrow, I'll cover the Pistons and their recipe for success.
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