The puck dropped for game two on Saturday afternoon. Patrick Kane scored the first goal of the game to give the Blackhawks the 1-0 lead when Patrick Sharp stole the puck from Brendan Smith and fed the puck to Michal Handzus who gave the puck to Kane for the one timer. The second period went a little differently for the Blackhawks. Giveaways gave the Wings multiple chances on Cory Crawford. Damien Brunner tipped Jakub Kindl‘s shot into the net almost 3 minutes into the period. The game went back and forth, but Detroit controlled the period for the most part. With just under 4 minutes remaining, Brendan Smith scored to give the Wings the 2-1 lead. Henrik Zetterberg made a great play to get control of the puck and fed the pass through defender Duncan Keith‘s legs to Smith for the goal. The second ended with Detroit in control of the game and the score. Johan Franzen scored to give the Wings the 3-1 lead when Jonathanval Ericsson gave Franzen a beautiful pass to put Franzen on a break away with about 12:30 left in regulation. Valtteri Filppula added another goal for Detroit to give them the lead 4-1 when Zetterberg dropped the puck to Filppula on a 3 on 2 for the goal. The game would end with the same score to tie the series up at 1.

Detroit’s third line has continued to scored and continued to play well. Damien Brunner has two goals in the series so far, Gustav Nyquist and Joakim Andersson have also been playing well and with a lot of energy, and they’re giving Mike Babcock great depth. Henrik Zetterberg has continued to play well into this series, he had 2 assists in game two to add to his total of 10 points thus far. Chicago looked great in game one, they looked ready to take control of this series and close Detroit out early. The defense was solid in game one, they capitalized on scoring chances, and they controlled the final 40 minutes of play. Detroit bounced back though, and proved that they won’t be walked through like the Wild. This is going to be a great series, and now it looks like Detroit believes they can win. Game 3 will be on Monday night in Detroit. Chicago failed to capture their advantage of home ice, and now go into Hockeytown with the series tied at 1 a piece, and Detroit now has home ice for the next to games.

Game four kicked off in Detroit on Monday night and it did not disappoint. This was one of the better hockey games I have watched in a long time. A game full of back and forth fast paced action. Matt Beleskey scored five minutes into the game to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead, and the momentum to grab a 3-1 lead. However, Jimmy Howard stood tall in net for the Wings and kept them in the game making numerous game saving stops. The game stayed in favor of the Ducks 1-0 lead until the third period, despite Detroit’s constant pressure on Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller. Brendan Smith finally snuck one passed Hiller a little over a minute into the third period. The shot deflected off of two different Ducks on the way to the net. Dave Steckel answered back for the Ducks with a little over 9 minutes remaining in regulation. However, the stars would shine for the Wings. Pavel Datsyuk, who played a fantastic game all night long, wristed a bullet over Jonas Hiller to tie the game at 2.

The game went to overtime, and the Ducks and Wings went back and forth on each other, until finally Joakim Andersson made a pass from his own blueline to a streaking Gustav Nyquist. Nyquist couldn’t get the puck from his skates to his stick cleanly, and had to just jab the puck at Hiller, Damien Brunner was coming down the right side, and was right there for the rebound and pounded it home for the 3-2 overtime winner.

With the series tied at 2 a piece, the teams head back to Anaheim for game 5 on Wednesday night. The Wings are 3-1 in Anaheim this season and look to break the series tie and put the pressure on Anaheim in game 6 in Detroit. The Ducks have been the better team in the series, they won 3-1 in game one, came back from being down 3 and lost in overtime, they won a very decisive game 3 4-0 in Detroit, and they were ahead for most of game 4 until Datsyuk tied the game with 6:30 left in the third. Detroit needs to keep their head in the game, and continue playing like they did in game 4. I don’t think they’re going to be able to continue coming back in games.  It’s been a great series, and I don’t expect anything to change. Game 5 is the most important game the two teams have played thus far, and it is sure to be a great game to watch Wednesday night.

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