First-period report: Goalies strong, Crosby seeing lots of Zetterberg ... we smell overtime
Posted by Scott Burnside
DETROIT -- After a pretty tentative start to the first period, this winner-take-all Game 7 contest got pretty lively in the last five minutes or so.
Neither team had any particularly glorious scoring chances, but I thought the Penguins did the better job of forechecking and disrupting the Red Wings' defense. That forecheck was the main reason the Pens outshot the Wings 10-6 in the first.
The best Penguins unit again tonight has been the Jordan Staal-Tyler Kennedy-Matt Cooke trio. Kennedy has especially been buzzing around the net, picking up loose pucks and making plays. The trio most often plays against the Wings' third defensive pair of Brett Lebda and Jonathan Ericsson and has made life difficult for those Detroit defenders.
Once again, Sidney Crosby's line has been seeing a lot of Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, and I can't recall Crosby or his mates having a decent chance. By the end of the first period, Miroslav Satan had taken at least one shift on Crosby 's line in place of Bill Guerin.
Marc-Andre Fleury and Chris Osgood look like they're on their respective games, making sure loose pucks don't get away from them when there's traffic in front of the net.
The Wings also dodged a bullet when they killed off the only power play of the period, a slash by Brad Stuart on Evgeni Malkin's stick. The Pens had lots of puck possession time during the power play, but couldn't deliver any real quality scoring chances.
The Red Wings' best chance might have been Valtteri Filppula driving the net, but he was disrupted by a Penguins defender and didn't get a good shot off because of a Fleury pokecheck.
What did you think Pierre?
Pierre LeBrun: Neither team wanted to make a mistake early on, which contributed to that cautious start you talked about, Scotty. And that only makes sense in a game of this magnitude. Ericsson of the Red Wings gave away the puck in his own zone on one shift -- Game 7 jitters? Four months ago, he was playing in the AHL. Let's see if he settles down as the game goes on.
The scoring chances were 6-5 for Pittsburgh, which reflected an evenly played period. The faceoffs were 11-3 for the Wings, a dangerous trend for the Pens, especially on special teams.
I think the first goal will have a dramatic effect on this game. But, at the same time, I smell overtime.
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