Monday, October 10, 2005

Wings extinguish Flames, 6-3

The Detroit Red Wings started the season with three wins after defeating the Calgary Flames, 6-3. Penalty trouble for the Flames helped the Wings get to a quick 3-0 lead by the end of the first period. The Flames had seven penalties in the first period alone, while the Wings had none. Nicklas Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, and Mikael Samuelsson all got a goal on the power play within the first 20 minutes of the game. The Wings outshot the Flames, 22-4, in the first period.
"You have to take advantage of your opportunities out there," Lidstrom said. "You can put a team away or get ahead big when you get a lot of power plays."
Henrik Zetterberg notched a goal and three assists in yesterday's game. Pavel Datsyuk scored during a power play in the third period. "It wasn't even close tonight," Flames captain Jarome Iginla said. "You didn't see any complaining from our side (about the penalties). We deserved them." Robert Lang scored his third goal of the season (one in each game thus far) towards the end of the second period. Goalie Miikka Kiprusoff was pulled after the second period. He was replaced by Philippe Sauve. Detroit's goaltender, Manny Legace, made 21 saves in Sunday's game. "We had a great start, we talked about that before the game, coming out and playing real strong," Lidstrom said. "Our power play was working for us." Head coach Mike Babcock was pleased with the team's performance. "We managed the puck and we were on top of their team more than they were on top of us, and we went to the net," Babcock said. "We didn't just play in the soft areas. We got involved in the game." Calgary's Roman Hamrlik had a goal and an assist in the game. Rhett Warrener and Chuck Kobasew both scored a goal. Warrener's shot was accidently tipped in by Kris Draper of the Wings. Darren McCarty returned to the Joe, but as a member of the opposing squad. Even so, McCarty entered the ice to a sound of applause and cheering. "It was weird coming out and having to go right instead of left," McCarty said. "It was great out there. I saw a lot of signs and shirts (greeting McCarty)." He also said that Sunday just flew by and thought Detroit has a strong team.
"It went quick, it was like a wedding day. It just blew by." McCarty said. "They (the Wings) have a good team over there. We were in the box a lot. They played a good game. They were definitely on."
In the first period, McCarty leveled Kirk Maltby, a former linemate. "I'm not mad at him or anything," Maltby said. "He's an aggressive player and he plays hard. That's what I would expect." With yesterday's goal, Lidstrom passed Ted Lindsay to become the sixth all-time scorer for the Detroit Red Wings with 729 points.

1 Comments:

At 10/10/2005 09:07:00 PM, Blogger greatwhitebear said...

So far, they have been very impressive!

 

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