Wings 6, Thrashers 5 (OT)

Last night's game certainly lived up to my expectations. It was as exciting a game as the Wings have been in all year and the end was in doubt right up to when Zetterberg scored in overtime. It wasn't a goalies game, that's for sure. After a slow first period where no goals were scored, the two teams combined for six goals in the second and four in the third. I probably would have preferred a lower scoring game with the goalies really standing out but the force of the NHL's two highest scoring teams proved to be too much. Pasi Nurminen played a very good game and his acrobatics in net overshadowed a steady performance by Curtis Joseph, who had very little chance on most of the Thrashers goals. The showdown I'd envisioned between Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk turned out to be more of one between Kovalchuck and Zetterberg. Pavel had a great game but was probably out performed overall by Henrik, who was in turn out played by Ilya. All three players gave us a taste of what's to come in the NHL over the next few years and it's going to be exciting. It's really too bad the Wings only face the Trashers once this year. Hopefully Datsyuk will be named to the All-Star team because that will be our only other chance to see Kovalchuck, who'll be on the team for sure, and him play each other. The Wings improved to 30-21-8 all-time on New Year's Eve games. For a more in-depth analysis of the game, see Brian's comments. The Wings took advantage of the St. Louis Blues' 7-2 loss to the Flyers on Tuesday and now lead the division by four points with 51. Vancouver is a point closer than the Blues with 48. Next up: @ Carolina, tomorrow, 7:00 EST News | ESPN | Box Score Lines- Maltby-Draper-Yzerman Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan-Zetterberg-Whitney Maltby-Draper-Dandenault Devereaux-Mowers-Holmstrom Whitney-Yzerman-Dandenault Whitney-Zetterberg-Dandenault Devereaux-Mowers-Dandenault Shanahan-Yzerman-Whitney Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios Kronwall-Woolley Kronwall-Schneider Lidstrom-Chelios 4 on 4- Whitney-Zetterberg Datysuk-Hull Maltby-Draper Shanahan-Yzerman Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios PP- Whitney-Datysuk-Yzerman Shanahan-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull Lidstrom-Schneider Woolley-Whitney PK- Maltby-Draper Zetterberg-Datsyuk Shanahan-Draper Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios Kronwall-Woolley OT- Datsyuk-Hull Maltby-Draper Zetterberg-Whitney Woolley-Chelios Lidstrom-Schneider Net- Curtis Joseph