Weekly Review: March 11th-17th, 2012

Weekly Review: March 11th-17th, 2012

Detroit went 0-2-1 this week getting 1 of a possible 6 points. In this terrible week the only bright light is the fact that Pavel Datsyuk is back from injury and one can only assume Nicklas Lidstrom will be coming back soon too.

Game 1: @Los Angeles (Loss: 5-2)

Last week Detroit managed one sluggish win over the LA Kings however they weren't as lucky this week. Justin Williams opened the scoring for the Kings set up from Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown. Thanks to a Dustin Penner Holding penalty a few minutes later Detroit's disastrous Power Play took the ice. Brendan Smith took had the puck just inside LA's blue-line and then Dustin Brown stole the puck from him and passed to Anze Kopitar who skated down the ice and put the puck in with a snap shot for a Short Handed goal. In the 2nd period Detroit finally got on the board with Jiri Hudler netting his 21st goal of the season thanks to Zetterberg and Filppula. However, Drew Doughty would get a slapshot from the blue line to beat Jimmy Howard putting the the Kings back up by 2 goals. Detroit's special teams dwindled in the 3rd period as well as they gave up a Power Play goal to Slava Voynov off of a Doug Janik boarding call. Johan Franzen would bang in a rebound from Brad Stuart's point shot to make the game 4-2. That would be as close as this game goat as Jeff Carter would wrist in an empty netter finishing this game off at 5-2.

Game 2: @Anaheim (Loss: 4-0)

The Ducks managed to shut out the Red Wings in this contest as Jonas Hiller stopped all 23 shots the Wings through at him. Teemu Selanne opened the scoring by tipping in a shot from Cam Fowler. This goal was Selanne's 660th career goal and his 1,400th career point. Kyle Palmieri had a great individual effort to backhand in his 2nd goal of the season. The Ducks big guns connected for the 3rd goal of the game, Bobby Ryan netted his 26th with assists from Getzlaf and Vishnovsky. Finally Palmieri would back hand in another oal this time set up by Getzlaf for his 2nd of the night. Detroit's Power Play was once again anemic as they went 0 for 3.

Game 3: San Jose (Loss 3-2 OT)

Detroit go their lone point of the week in this contest, however it came in the form of an OT Loss. Detroit fell behind early giving up 2 goals to Joe Pavelski and Martin Havlat but the lead was cut in half thanks to the returning Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk got the puck in the corner from Kronwall and managed to shoot it on net and have it roll over Antti Niemi and in. Valtteri Filppula would even up the game at 2 a side just over halfway through the 3rd period with a beautiful snipe over the shoulder of Niemi. As the game went to OT it would be Martin Havlat who set up his own chance, a scramble in front of the net, where he eventually banged in the game winner.

***

Another poor week for Detroit, Jimmy Howard hasn't looked good since he came back from his injury and now Joey MacDonald is Day-To-Day with Back Spasms. It was good to see Datsyuk back in the lineup and contributing with a goal in Saturday's contest. Hopefully they can turn things around next week.