Weekly Review: February 26th - March 3rd, 2012

Weekly Review: February 26th - March 3rd, 2012

Two wins for the Wings this week as they rebound from 3 consecutive losses. Niklas Lidstrom was injured this week which gave way for recent call up Brendan Smith to crack the lineup. 

Game 1: @Columbus (Win: 5-2)

It was a slow rocky start for the Wings but in the end they prevailed getting 2 points over the Blue Jackets. Not having Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom didn't help either as both were out of the lineup with injuries. Johan Franzen opened the scoring with a wrist shot early in the first period, but Rick Nash was able to equalize the game with a Power Play tip-in goal. There was no scoring done in the 2nd and heading in to the 3rd period Detroit looked sloppy as they gave up a Short Handed goal to Columbus from Derek MacKenzie. That Short Handed goal perhaps lit a fire underneath the wings as they proceeded to score 4 straight goals. Niklas Kronwall backhanded in the tying goal from a Zetterberg set up and then Zetterberg scored the go-a-head goal set up by Valtteri Filpulla and Kronwall. Jan Murask and Valtteri Filppula would add insurance markers to secure the win. Aside from the sloppy Short Handed goal Joey MacDonald looked really good in this game saving 28 of 30 shots.

Game 2: Minnesota @ Home (Win: 6-0)

Coming off of 3 losses and a somewhat rocky win against Columbus it was nice to see the Wings dominate a game. Once again missing Lidstrom and Datsyuk the Wings managed to light up the Wild en route to a 6-0 win. Valtteri Filppula opened the scoring in the first set up by Zetterberg and Kronwall and then later in the first Brendan Smith would get his first goal as a Red Wing set up from Adbelkader and Cleary. In the 2nd period Darren Helm snapped a puck past Josh Harding for his 8th of the year and Valtteri Filppula would score his second goal of the game set up by Zetterberg and Kronwall again. Ian White would add an unassisted slap shot goal to put the Wings up 5-0 heading into the 3rd period. In the 3rd period Henrik Zetterberg would score his 15th of the year from Filppula (who recored his 3rd point of the night) and Ian White. Jimmy Howard stopped all 19 shots to get his 6th Shut out of the year.

***

This was a good week for Detroit to pick themselves up from the rut they fell into last week and it was great to see the team play as well as they did with out Lidstrom and Datsyuk. Big props to Brendan Smith for scoring his first goal as a Red Wing!