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September 21, 2001 - No Discipline in Detroit leads to Loss
My Kris Draper Page

No Discipline in Detroit leads to Loss

By Frank Porcelli

Thanks to some horrible Blackhawk penalties, the Wings scored three power play goals in the second period to give them a 4-1 victory over the Blackhawks on Friday Night in Detroit. The win gives the Wings their first win of the preseason and the Blackhawks remain winless on the road.

Steve Passmore started in goal for the Blackhawks, while Manny Legace played in goal for the Red Wings.

 

Detroit had their best chance of the first period while shorthanded. Boyd Devereaux and Kris Draper worked the give and go, giving Draper a partial breakaway. Draper let a shot go from the face-off circle, but Passmore made a nice save coming out far from the crease to cut down the angle.

 

The Blackhawks almost scored on their second power play of the first period when Steve Thomas redirected the puck past Legace, but had the puck hit the post and stay out.

 

The Blackhawks had an even better chance on their third power play of the period. Tony Amonte, stationed along the boards, sent a pass to Eric Daze along the goal line. Daze fed Alex Zhamnov in the slot area, who fired a quick shot towards the net. Legace made a nice save to keep the game scoreless.

 

The Blackhawks had a great chance in the last minute of the first period. Steve Sullivan came out from behind the net and put a backhand shot on the net, but Legace made a good glove save. Passmore than matched Legace with a good glove save on a Sergei Federov shot with four seconds left in the first period.

 

The Wings score the first goal of the game 31 seconds into the second period while on a power play. Brendan Shanahan made a great pass from the far boards across the ice to the near side, where Pavel Datsyuk fired the puck through the legs of Passmore, who was sliding from right to left, giving the Wings a 1-0 lead.

 

The Blackhawks first good chance of the second period came seven minutes into the period. Tony Amonte sent a pass from the board to Alex Zhamnov, who was stationed in the slot. Zhamnov let a quick show go, but was stopped by Legace.

 

Steve Passmore made a great left toe save a few minutes later on a Kris Draper shot to keep the Blackhawks only one goal down.

Chris Osgood came into the game, replacing Legace halfway through the second period.

 

The Red Wings had a four on three power play for a minute, then a two man advantage for another minute. Steve Passmore made some great saves to keep the Wings off of the board, but the Wings were able to score right before the second penalty ended.

 

Fredrik Olausson took a pass at the left point and skated towards the middle of the ice before feeding the puck to Sergei Fedorov at the right face-off circle. Fedorov fired the puck past Passmore, who was slow moving from right to left as he appeared to be tired from the long power play. The Wings went ahead 2-0.

 

The Blackhawks were short two men a few minutes later and the Wings cashed in scoring their third power play goal of the game. Brendan Shanahan had the puck at the left point and found Olausson sneaking in from the right point. Olausson appeared to whiff at his shot, but got enough of the puck to lift it over the shoulder of Passmore to give the Wings a 3-0 lead.

 

The Blackhawks scored their first goal of the game 25 seconds into the third period. Tony Amonte sent the puck up ice from his own zone. Steve Sullivan tipped the puck up ice in the neutral zone to Eric Daze, who slipped behind the Detroit defenders and had a breakaway. Daze put the puck over the left shoulder of Osgood to cut the Detroit lead to 3-1.

 

The Blackhawks took a chance with four and a half minutes left while on a power play, pulling Leighton for the extra attacker. The Blackhawks won the face-off, but did not get a good chance and Sergei Fedorov fired the puck into the empty net, giving the Wings a 4-1 lead.

 

The story of this game was the second period. The Blackhawks had a strong first period and were in control of the game, they just couldnt score as Legace was strong in the Detroit net in the first period.

 

The game changed in the second period as the Blackhawks were undisciplined and took a lot of dumb and unnecessary penalties. The Red Wings have a lot of talent and if you give them numerous opportunities on the power play, they will make you pay and they did that tonight.

 

After the Wings scored their three goals, this game was for all intense purposes over as not much happened in the third period by the Blackhawks as they didn't put much effort out to finish the game.

The Blackhawks have lost two road games because of stupid penalties and with mostly a veteran lineup tonight, this should not have happened. The Blackhawks will just have to learn from this and move on to the next game.