Detroit Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2 in Game 1 – NHL Play-offs Update
Entering their 20th consecutive National Hockey League play-off series, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2 in Game 1 of the seven game series on Wednesday at the sold-out Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit.
Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard lived up to his teams expectations and delivered. He had a near shut-out making 26 spectacular rejections, only letting two slip in. On the other hand, Coyotes’ goalie Ilya Bryzgalov could not match the hype that was created by
his Captain Shane Doan before the play-offs, as his performance was quite average.
The Red Wings gave over 15 minutes of penalty time to the Coyotes to take advantage, but they were unable to score a single goal. Rostislav Klesla of the Coyotes and Red Wings’ Todd Bertuzzi exchanged fists to inaugurate the play-offs first fight, as both
players received a five minute major penalty for the brawl.
Red Wings’ Coach Mike Babcock went pale in the face after being questioned about the possibilities if Phoenix had capitalised on those power-play opportunities. He expressed his teams need to improve on that and did not want to think about what could have
happened.
Kyle Turris gave Phoenix the one goal lead to end the first period ahead. It was his first goal since 5 March, which was also in a match-up against Detroit and remained scoreless for 14 games after that. Turris fired of a wrist shot from the top shelf in
his first play-off game after being picked third in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
Entering the second period handicapped sparked Detroit and turned them into a blazing inferno. They scored four goals consecutively which continued until early in the third period which caused the Coyotes to stand stunned, wondering what just happened to
them. Pavel Datsyuk made the tying goal at the 7:38 mark. Johan Franzen broke that tie and took the lead nearly five minutes later, while Brian Rafalski took advantage on the period’s last power-play with less than two minutes to go.
Jiri Hudler finalised the match 3:16 into the third period which insured their first play-off game. He was fed a loose puck by Drew Miller who bounced the pass off the boards and fired it off from the left circle. Radim Vrbata scored the final goal of the
night to bring Phoenix within a two goal reach, but Howard locked down the defence from all sides.
"Once they got the momentum in the second period, we couldn't get it back," Coyotes Coach Dave Tippett said. "We hung around, but we're going to have to be much better.
The Coyotes get a chance at making the series right when they face off against each other in game 2 of the quarter-finals on Saturday in Detroit.
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