All the talk leading into the Stanley Cup Finals surrounded around the game’s best young stars, from Crosby and Malkin to Zetterberg and Datsyuk. But after Game 1, all the talk centered around Wings’ forward Mikael Samuelsson.
Samuelsson scored two goals on Saturday night, as the Red Wings defeated the Penguins, 4-0, in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Wings’ special teams helped Detroit seal their Game 1 victory, with Dan Cleary scoring shorthanded and Henrik Zetterberg added a power play goal. Both Cleary and Zetterberg’s goals came in the third period with less than 3 minutes to play, squashing any chance for the Penguins to attempt to mount a late comeback.
Samuelsson took advantage of two costly Penguins turnovers. The first one was off of a poor line change by Pittsburgh. The Penguins were gased and miles away from their own bench in the second period. Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy labored to the bench, and Samuelsson used his fresh legs to race up the ice and score the game’s first goal on a wraparound.
His second goal, Samuelsson outworked Penguins defenseman Hal Gill along the borads, and Gill’s teammates couldn’t bail him out. Between Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, Rob Scuderi and Evgeni Malkin, none of the three came up with it cleanly, resulting in Samuelsson burying his second goal past Fleury not more than a foot in front of the net.
As the game began, it was evident the Wings had early jitters in front of a packed Joe Louis Arena crowd. The Penguins played their road gameplan almost flawlessly, moving their feet and using their speed to get the Wings back on their heels. Pittsburgh’s speed frustrated Detroit into four, first period penalties. The last thing the Wings wanted was to allow the Penguins to get the first goal, but importantly get their power play going. The Wings and goalie Chris Osgood would have none of it.
Osgood turned aside 19 shots on the night, 12 in the first period. The Penguins had some quality chances in the first period, but they came up empty. They couldn’t gain momentum. They couldn’t draw first blood. And the Pens were never the same. The Wings got their early game jitters out of their system, taking just one penalty the rest of the game. Defensively, it may have been the best it’s been all postseason.
The Penguins used the power play to get off 12 shots in the first, but after that, it was a completely different game. Crosby and company managed just seven shots combined in the second and third periods. They had a few chances in the third, most notably from Marian Hossa who rung Pittsburgh’s best chance off the post. But the Wings didn’t allow the Pens to ever get comfortable on offense, never allowing Pittsburgh to gain nor sustain momentum.
The end result was Pittsburgh looking up at their opponent for the first time in these playoffs. This is now the first series Pittsburgh has trailed in after handling Ottawa, New York and Philadelphia. Crosby and Malkin were knocked around by the Wings, their time and space taken away from what they’ve previously been accustomed too. The looks and body language from the vistors were those of frustration and going into Game 2, how the Penguins respond, especially through the first 10 minutes of the game will be vital.
While Datsyuk didn’t register a point, there weren’t many players for either team that were better than he was. He led the way with six hits while firing five shots at Fleury. He played fantastic at both ends of the ice, outworking and outhustling many of the Penguins. And that whole secondary scoring thing was taken care of by Samuelsson and Cleary.
This time, however, the Wings dind’t let a disallowed goal affect them the way it did in Game 4 of the Dallas series. Predictably, you can imagine Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom was invovled in his second disallowed goal. Holmstrom was parked in front of the Fleury, who drifted slightly out of his crease and ever-so lightly, Holmstrom’s stick came in contact with Fleury’s goalie gear, negating Lidstrom’s goal and sent Homer to the box for interference. Or so they say. Another shotty call by the refs, probably a reputation call again. But it didn’t faze the Wings. Not much did on this night.
Heading into Game 2, Penguins coach Michel Therrien, who called Game 1 the worst performance of the playoffs, will be doing some line juggling to try and generate more favorably matchups, or at the very least, give the Wings new looks. A lot has been made coming in about the experience factor and the fact that the Wings have oodles and the Pens have very little. The Wings have been here, done that before, but the Penguins are pretty much learning on the fly here in the finals.
How the Pens respond in Game 2 could go a long way in determining exactly what kind of series this will be. Then again, if the Wings play with that kind of passion and desire, and that defensive effort, Pittsburgh’s best might have to be a whole lot better.
