Philadelphia Flyers get defeated as Detroit Red Wings crush another opponent on home ice – NHL Recap
Detroit Red Wings are unstoppable at home and they proved it yet again, this time beating Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3, on Sunday February 12, 2012, at Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan, to get their 20th straight victory on home ice.
In the final period, Johan Franzen scored his 22nd goal of the National Hockey League (NHL) present season to give the decisive one-goal lead to Detroit, which successfully managed to keep Flyers away from making a scoring move in the period.
Detroit’s general manager, Ken Holland, thinks that the team should focus more on winning the games rather than eyeing the records.
He commented after the game:
"The biggest thing is St. Louis won tonight and we got two points. We're in a real dog fight for the [Central Division] and [Western Conference], so it's a huge two points. You look back more in the summertime. Right now, we're just focused in and we needed
to win a game – but the guys have done a tremendous job not to lose at home for three months."
Detroit is leading the Western Conference with 78 points after 57 games and the team did well throughout the game to respond to the tough competition put forward by Flyers.
Niklas Kronwall scored the first goal of the game to get Detroit ahead, but Brayden Schenn equalised in the same period.
The second period also remained evenly competent.
At 5:22, Schenn scored his second goal of the game to give Flyers the lead.
It took around three minutes for Detroit to hit back.
At 8:27, Pavel Datsyuk utilised a power-play and fired a shot from 28 feet to take the score to 2-2.
Both the teams continued to show aggression and Philadelphia once again managed to get past Detroit.
At 16:19, Maxime Talbot flipped the puck past Detroit’s goalie, Joey MacDonald, to score Flyers’ third goal of the game.
However, the response was not late.
At 18:21, Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit and the score was once again levelled, 3-3.
Soon at the start of the final period, Franzen scored the go-ahead goal for the Red Wings.
Franzen was standing close to Flyers’ goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, when a shot was fired by Detroit’s winger. Franzen just had to flick the puck into the net to get the goal.
Flyers’ forward, Scott Hartnell, said of Red Wings:
“They're a tough team to play against. That's why they're one of the best in the League every year."
Philadelphia is ranked at fourth spot in the Eastern Conference with 69 points after 56 games.
Hoping to get 21st victory in a row on home ice, Detroit will now take on Dallas Stars on Tuesday, February 14, while Flyers will face Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
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