Dallas pride was at stake

Detroit @ Dallas (game 4)

Dallas came out flying and buzzing the Red Wings net, with a strong start. Chris Osgood was holding the fort and was keeping Detroit in it. The wings looked lethargic; they were not moving their feet. The result was that Detroit was short handed twice within the first ten minutes of the game. They were lucky the stars had no finish and were blowing their chances once again. Dallas finished o-3 on the power play in the first period, but it was still their best period of hockey yet in the series. The stars out shot the wings by a margin of 9-5, with nothing to show for it.

Dallas finally was forcing the Detroit defense into turnovers by getting on them quickly, taking away their time and space. The Dallas caught their first break of the series when Detroit (Datsyuk) scored on the power play. Holmstrom was ruled in the crease and the goal was waved off. Replays showed he was outside of the blue paint and the goal should have counted, but I think this one was called back on Holmstom’s reputation and where he usually sets up his office on the power play. No sooner had Dallas killed off the penalty when Steve Ott took one for elbowing Rafalski and the wings were back on the power play. Detroit had 3 power plays in the second and came up empty as well. Dallas drew first blood when Eriksson scored on a rebound with just 23 seconds left in the second period.

Henrik Zetterberg tied it for Detroit 48 seconds into the third period on another Dallas turnover. Mike Modano put Dallas ahead again on the power play. Just previously Daniel Cleary had broken his stick blocking a shot from the point so it was really five on three and a half when Modano scored. Brendan Morrow made it 3-1 Dallas with just under 6 minutes left. Detroit pulled Osgood and had a six on three for the last half minute due to the fact that Dallas was already down two men before Osgood was pulled. Marty Turco was very strong in the Dallas net making 34 saves. The final was 3-1 Dallas but it seemed like Detroit was just mailing it in for forty minutes of the game.


Hockey World Championship

Canada beat Norway by a score of 8-2, and moves on to face Sweden in the semi-final on May 16. Finland shocked the USA in overtime and will face Russia in the other semi also on Friday May 16.
Norway stayed close at 2-2 for half of the game, then Canada flexed the hockey muscle and turned it into a bit of a laugher.

May 15 Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia

Jeffrey Lupul opened the scoring for the flyers when his shot deflected off Hal Gill’s stick and up over Fleury’s left shoulder at about 11:30 of the first period. Daniel Briere scored on the power play to make it 2-0 with about 8 minutes left in the first period. Letang on Pittsburgh took and interference penalty which the announcer called two minutes for flipping, what the hell is flipping, makes you wonder what he was smoking.

Philadelphia was putting much more traffic in front of the Penguins net, for the first time in the series and they were playing their best game of the series. Jeff Carter made it 3-0 before the end of the period.

The flyers were doing a good job in this game of plugging up the neutral zone, making it difficult for the Penguins to generate speed coming into their defensive zone. There was no scoring in the second period.

Jordan Staal scored for the Penguins early in the third period at the 3:16 mark. Chipping a shot off Marty Biron’s pad and into the short side of the net. Staal scored again at 14:11 with a short side wrist shot. The flyers were getting a nervous because they have been known to have a hard time holding a lead this year. Staal was the best player on the ice for the Penguin’s. Lupul got his second of the night into an empty net to seal a 4-2 flyers victory at 19:27 of the third period.

I should have known that both the stars and the flyers would not be swept in their respective series. There was just too much pride in their respective dressing rooms to let that happen. I will still be surprised if both series are not over with identical 4-1 records after the next game.

Speaking of the next games, I don’t think our American cousins get it, the Dallas @ Detroit game is at 1:30 PM Saturday May 17 and The Philly @ Pittsburgh game is at 3PM on Sunday the 18th. You watch hockey AT NIGHT, that way you can enjoy the day outside, at this point I don’t know if I will see them or not as I will be up north at the cottage.

World Hockey Championship

Canada defeated Sweden 5-4 on Friday May 16, 2008, and will face Russia in the gold metal game. You guessed it the game is Sunday afternoon at 3PM. It‘s enough to drive a hockey guy crazy. Can you say picture in picture. Russia got to the goal metal game by defeating Finland 4-0. The Bronze game (who cares) is at 3 PM on Saturday the 17th at 3PM. Sweden will play their arch rivals Finland.

That’s it for now

Sincerely Walt Webb
http://allsportsontheweb.com
http://thesportingnews-walt.blogspot.com/