Game #3 - Oilers 4, Wings 3 (2OT)

I tried "liveblogging" at Behind the Jersey, so here's what I had to say throughout last night's game... - Loud crowd! If only the Joe could be like that, but we have all the silly rich business people. Ugh. - Whoever sang the two national anthems, my parents and I were cringing. Man - I'll take Karen Newman over him anyday! First Period - The Wings are putting a lot of pressure in the Oilers end. Jason Williams was pretty close to getting a goal, but it hit the far goalpost. The play was reviewed and no goal was the outcome. - Mikael Samuelsson chose to flick the puck towards the center of the Wings defensive zone instead of clearing it. An Oiler got a clear shot, puck sent behind net, and then Jason Spacek scored on a slapshot 4:15 into the first. No one was blocking Manny's view; he just went down too early. Oilers 1, Wings 0 - This drives me absolutely crazy. The Wings seem to have the game going their tempo and then they make a stupid (and costly) error. The Oilers go up on the board and get the momentum. Come on Wings - let's cut back on these silly defensive errors! - The Wings had at least 30 seconds with a man advantage and they used it. Detroit applied a lot of pressure with the puck in the Oilers end the entire time. Kronwall had numerous shots that looked like they could've gone in. Mathieu Schneider made a nice pass to Henrik Zetterberg who flicked it in (for his 2nd power play goal of the postseason) 12:06 into the first. Shots all even at 7. Wings 1, Oilers 1 - Ridiculous. I just told my dad, "Look at all the pressure the Wings are applying! Oh crap, here come the Oilers. I bet they score here." And what do they do? They score. I think we've been doing pretty well and then we make stupid stupid mistakes and the Oilers pounce on those opportunities. Plus Manny isn't looking too hot. Ryan Smyth scored at 16:48. Oilers 2, Wings 1 - I am so confused with this penalty stuff. Holmstrom got called for holding and then interference; I didn't see the interference and holding? Then Jason Smith is in for Roloson. And now Cheli tried to clear the puck and it went out so we have a delay of game. So for like 56 seconds, the Oilers are 5-3 on the Wings. Fortunately, Lidstrom and Zetterberg have each cleared the puck to kill about 15-20 seconds. - With exactly 30 seconds left on the 5-3 Oilers advantage, the first period came to a close. Thank goodness. Mike Babcock better have something to say to his team. The Oilers aren't beating Detroit; Detroit is beating Detroit. Stupid penalties. Stupid mistakes. Ugh. - The Wings had 6 penalties to Edmonton's three in the first. End of First Period: Oilers 2, Wings 1 (Edmonton outshot Wings, 11-9) Second Period - 2:38 into the first, Pronger takes a shot from right inside the blueline and Torres deflects it behind Manny. This was, of course, on the Oilers power play. Man, this game is pissing me off. Oilers 3, Wings 1 - The Wings have a power play after Smyth ran into Manny (he just couldn't stop); they need to score right now. And the Wings don't even generate that many offensive opportunities; the Oilers just block and clear. - Steve Yzerman was hooked as he was going to the goal. If it wasn't for Yzerman, I'd be losing my mind. The Wings need to look at him and replicate his fervor and ability. He's outskating some of the Oilers and he's getting chances. Lidstrom hit the goalpost during the power play. Our passes are sloppy; we just aren't connecting and that wasted the rest of the power play. - Panic hasn't set in, just yet. Extreme worry has though. Can we score at least two goals in the third without allowing anymore Edmonton goals in? I guess we'll find out... End of 2nd Period: Oilers 3, Wings 1 (Detroit outshoots Oilers, 6-4) Third Period - I love the comment by Happy Pancake at the Lets Go Wings forum: "Can we take the Wings players' families hostage until they start playing like an actual cohesive NHL team?" - You've GOT to be kidding me. Lebda called for unsportsmanlike for diving? Seriously - he was bloody "corkscrew"ed according to Mickey. There was no way he could've stayed on his feet. For the first time, it wasn't the Wings fault. I'm getting mad...And the penalties were offsetting, but that should've been our bloody power play! Vladiator on the LGW forum said: "Man, I don't know. With that last call, just looking more and more like a Canadian Conspiracy to me." - Yzerman drew an Oiler penalty. We need our power play from the regular season right about now. This is ridiculous, with 1 minute to go in the power play, I think the Oilers had more shots than we did. Edicius on the LGW forum: "Was...was that actually a power play? I didn't realize so much defensive play was required when one is on a power play." - Finally! Zetterberg scores another power play goal with 8:08 left in regulation. Willy actually did something good and helped set up that goal. Come on Wings please don't make a stupid mistake and screw up our momentum. Oilers 3, Wings 2 - Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yzerman won the face-off, Schneider took a slapshot and bam it's in the back of the net with 7:44 left. Can they get another one and perhaps win this game? Or will the menacing Oilers return? We need Yzerman on the ice - all the time. Wings 3, Oilers 3 - Man. That Oiler (Hemsky) fell head face into the board and just laid there until the refs blew the whistle and then popped right back up. And the Wings had the pressure down in the Oilers end. Man that sucks. Let's just say that it was pretty easy to read Babcock's lips about what he had to say to the refs and it was all swearing. If looks could kill... - Well, there's 1:17 left in the third and it's all tied up at 3. Looks like we're heading into OT. Oh crap, Lidstrom made a hook and now we're shorthanded. He's our penalty killer! Ahh. In game 1, didn't we have to kill a last minute penalty that extended into overtime? Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come. - Darren McCarty scored to help the Flames beat Anaheim, 5-2. End of Third Period: Wings 3, Oilers 3 (Wings outshot Oilers, 14-5, and won 68% of the face-offs) Overtime - We have 47 seconds left to kill in the penalty when OT starts. To bad we have an intermission, the Wings certainly had momentum. Let's Go Red Wings! - Stress causes my knee pain to really flare up. So the Wings need to score ASAP so (a) my knee can feel better and (b) I can get some sleep. Fortunately, I finished my freshman year of college tonight at 9pm when I turned in my bio final exam. Otherwise, it'd be an early morning... - We killed the penalty! Oh man, I just had a near heart attack - 2 Oilers on a breakaway and they call it offsides. Didn't look like it from what I saw. - 15:32 left in OT, Zetterberg got hooked multiple times by Spacek and so the Wings go on a power play. Come on!! - Spacek (?) had a breakaway and Willy hooked him but there is no penalty shot. Just a penalty. Thank goodness. Ahh, Willy you're killing me! The Wings successfully killed the Oilers power play; Manny had a pretty nice save. - Now Peca is in the box, come on Wings! I can't believe no one has scored with the 3 different power plays in OT. The Oilers killed that penalty. Man. - Yzerman was hit somewhere and left the bench. But he's back on the bench and looking very determined. We need him out here winning us some face-offs! - I love that the Edmonton fans boo Cheli whenever he touches the puck. I must say I've been impressed with their involvement in the game; puts the Joe to shame. - Crap. Yzerman took 2 steps out onto the ice and then went back off. Uh oh. This is not good. Even if we win this game, we need Yzerman. *I* need Yzerman playing. - Willy scores!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I believe that Willy scored? Oh wait, they are reviewing the play. Crap, it went through the side of the net. No goal. What a momentum loss, we're back to OT. - Shots, 38-24, in Detroit's favor. - Doesn't look like Yzerman is playing anymore tonight, but he's still sitting on the bench. He had 14:22 of ice time tonight. - Less than two minutes left in OT, how has no one scored yet? I can't believe we're possibly going into ANOTHER double overtime in 3 games. Yep, we're heading into double overtime. At least we're seeing the actual Red Wings playing and not their slow/sloppy/lazy alterego. End of Overtime: Wings 3, Oilers 3 (Detroit outshot Edmonton, 10-6, and won 53% of face-offs) Double Overtime - Have you seen the My Stanley Cup ad featuring the Wings? It's the best ad the NHL has produced yet this year. Although Kiefer Sutherland's voiceover sounds nothing like Jack Baeur in 24 (great show by the way), but the commercial showed action and highlighed popular players like Shanny, Lids, and Yzie. - Yzerman is skating okay on the ice now; hopefully they were able to work some magic during intermission. He has a fantastic pain tolerance, I truly admire and appreciate that in a person and athlete. - Pressure on both ends; both goalies have made some key saves. Come on Wings, let's get this puck in the back of the net! It's 2am here in Detroit! - I must say that I've been most impressed with Kronwall and Yzerman tonight. Kronwall has been hitting and taking shots and making no major mistakes that I've noticed. - Ok, the Wings are dominating which is scary because everytime the Wings really dominate, the Oilers score a goal off a bad defensive/goalie error. Come on, come on. - With 11:16, Stoll scores so the Oilers win 4-3 in double overtime. Crap. I knew this would happen. Crap. Crap. Crap. Well, I'm not as terrified as I would have been had we lost the game, 3-1, but that still doesn't help the fact that we are down in the series now, 2-1. - What a night to try out this liveblogging stuff. It's 2:10am, good morning everybody. End of Double OT: Oilers 4, Wings 3 (Wings outshot Oilers, 8-5) Overall Personally, I thought the Wings deserved the win. Had the game ended in regulation, I would've had something different to say. But they dominated in the last 7-8 minutes of the third and then throughout the first and second overtime. Well, this just plain sucks. But I have not lost heart; the team brought it. However, I didn't see Yzerman play in the 2nd OT - not good. It appears to be lower body, perhaps hip flexor? For more info, check out the offensive scoresheet.