OVERALL RECAP
Game 6. In Detroit. Detroit on the verge of elimination. I wouldn’t want to be the Anaheim Ducks either. When said elimination game goes into overtime, there’s no team I would want to be in that arena playing the Wings. The Wings would climb aboard the back of Henrik Zetterberg who nets the OT winner taking this series back to Anaheim for the first game 7 of the playoffs.
May 10, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg (40) is is mobbed by teammates after scoring a goal in overtime against the Anaheim Ducks in game six of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Joe Louis Arena. Detroit won 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
GAME RECAP
With 18 shots going either way in the first period the action was there. The crowd was in it and the game was going great. From the opening puck drop this looked like it was going to be Jonas Hiller vs Jimmy Howard to see who would determine the end of the game. Then Pavel Datsyuk decided he didn’t like that game. Dangling his way out from the sideboard, Datsyuk wove his way through defenders with a…well…Datsyukian rhythm. Pulling a scrum with him to the high slot Datsyuk fired a backhand through the crowd and Hiller, giving the Wings a 1-0 lead with a minute remaining in the first.
Starting off the second it looked like this game was about to be all tied up. On a 2 on 1 break, Teemu Selanne gets absolutely stonewalled by the pads of Jimmy Howard, keeping this game at 1-0. However just over the halfway mark in the period Kyle Palmieri plays a little game of trickshot from the edge of the circles. His shot beats Howard cleanly, but finds the post, shooting out directly off the body of Brendan Smith, and bouncing back into the net. The Ducks tie the game at 1.
Just over 5 minutes into the third period, Zetterberg decides that game 6 is a reasonable time for him to start scoring. From the point on the power play, Hank fires a shot through a crowd, beating Hiller. 4 minutes later Justin Abdelkader, back from his 2 game suspension would turn and fire a puck on net, deflecting off Dan Cleary and in behind Hiller, making it 3-1. The Ducks however would respond. Minutes later Emerson Etem would pull the Ducks within 1. And only a minute after the Etem goal, Bobby Ryan would tie this game up. The final minutes of the third solved nothing, and with everyone in Detroit biting their nails, this game was heading to OT.
The Red Wings would waste no time in the extra frame. From exactly the same spot he scored his first goal, Henrik Zetterberg unloaded a shot making it 4-3 Red Wings, and forcing a game 7 in Anaheim.
SENSHOT 3 STARS
1 – Henrik Zetterberg
2 – Pavel Datsyuk
3 – Emerson Etem