Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, ........................
Are the Detroit Redwings about to fill the blank above and become only the 4th team in history to come from 3 games down and win a series? After Tuesday night's game 6 they have left themselves with a hell of a chance of doing so.
They looked down and out only a few days ago as San Jose took a 3-0 advantage in the series yet they have managed to fight off elimination 3 times now to set themselves up with the chance of meetig Vancouver in the Western Conference Final.
In game 6 they outplayed and outshot the Sharks through period 1 and 2. They had taken 32 shots on goal to San Jose's 13 yet the game remained 0-0 as Niemi played extremely well throughout and also had a bit of luck, with Clearly hitting the post with a breakaway after dekeing round the netminder and only needing to stuff it home.
All of a sudden at the start of the 3rd period the Sharks had come to life and looked like the were going to steal the game as Couture sneaked a wrist shot through Howard that just crept over the line only 3.54 into the period. This gave San Jose some confidence and they started to play the better hockey for a few minutes and they had more of the puck.
The Redwings managed to level the game though at 10.38 as Filppula controlled the puck in the circle and passed back to the point to Kronwall and as he skated in and took the slap shot it was Zetterberg in front that tipped it past Niemi to tie the game.
This sent the fans inside the Joe wild and they got what they wanted, a 2-1 lead at 12.32. This time it was Filppula scoring as he first jumped up and stol a chipped pass mid ice, skated into the attacking zone and gave it to Datysuk who then returned it across ice on the back hand to find him wide open with half the net to fire the puck into.
It was 2 goals in just under 2 minutes and it completely swung the play back Detroit's way. Even a 2 minute penalty on Abdelkader didn't give the Shark the equaliser they needed and Darren Helm finished the game off with an empty net goal with 1.05 left on the game.
That has sent us into a game 7 tonight and it promises to be another cracking match back in the Shark Tank.
Ryan Clowe missed game 6 for San Jose as did Franzen for Detroit and both players are likely to be out again in game 7. Mcginn played for San Jose and Modano played for Detroit and it's likely both players will be in the lineup tonight.
Niemi had a huge game 6 and if the Redwings come out and attack like the same tonight he will again need to be big for the Sharks. At the other end, Howard had one of his quieter nights of this series and was only really put under any pressure for a spell in the 3rd period. He still managed 24 saves though and if he can keep the Sharks down to just a single goal again he will be giving his team a great chance of going through.
San Jose somehow need to find a way of getting themselves back to winning ways. There hasn't been much between the 2 teams all series and that is reflected in the scorelines of the matches. Somehow they have to work out how they get back to the team that gets the extra goal. They have given up early 3rd period leads in the last 2 games now so if they are in that position again they need to find a way to close out a game and hold on to what they have got. They have been a much better team this season when chasing teams and being under pressure to get back into games - look at the game against LA coming back from 4 and they have also chased a 3 goal deposit down in this series, only to lose that late on.
Detroit have improved as this series has gone on and now stand on the brink of being that 4th team in history to come back from a 3-0 deposit. Can they do it? We will know after tonight's game. What will be for sure is there won't be a lack of effort from anyone on that ice tonight.
As you would expect, Datsyuk and Zetterberg are leading the scoring for the Wings in this series and along with the help of Lidstrom have combined for 7 of the 16 goals scored and have a combined 21 points. These are the players Detroit will be looking to tonight to get them over the line and into the Conference Final.
Whichever team makes it - they face a trip to Vancouver on Sunday for the start of that Western Conference Final. Teams are then only going to be 8 wins away from landing themselves the ultimate prize - Lord Stanley's Cup.
No comments:
Post a Comment