Rookie Damien Brunner scored 15:10 into the first overtime period to give the Detroit Red Wings a vital 3-2 Game 4 victory at the Joe Louis Arena to tie this Western Conference Quaterfinal Series at two games each.
Despite his 46 saves on the evening, Jonas Hiller will certainly run this play continuously in his head and wonder "what if" he had raced out of his goal to play a loose puck that seemed to be out of the reach of Red Wing rookie Gustav Nyquist, who was in hot pursuit of the loose puck. Hiller's hesitancy resulted in an unfortunate bounce when Hiller's last second pokecheck bounced off sliding Ducks defenseman Bryan Allen and off Hiller's pad, right to the blade of Detroit's Damien Brunner and the rest is history.
The Red Wings battled back from two one-goal deficits on the night, including Pavel Datsyuk's goal with 6:33 remaining in regulation to make it a 2-2 game and set the stage for another rookie Red Wing to steal the spotlight in overtime.
It seemed only fitting that Datsyuk scored the game-tying goal in the third period, as he was an absolute "dynamo" in the game, particularly in the 3rd period when he essentially dominated each and every shift he was on the ice.
Detroit came out appearing nervous in the opening 10 minutes of the contest and fell behind a mere 5:07 into the contest when a miscommunication between young defensemen Brendan Smith and Kyle Quincey resulted in a turnover and Matt Beleskey of the Ducks made the defensive pair pay for their miscue.
The Red Wings didn't seem to settle down until rearguard Niklas Kronwall"Kronwall'd" Ducks forward Kyle Palmieri in the neutral zone.
It certainly woke the Joe Louis Arena crowd up after having been silenced by the Beleskey opening tally. In turn, the Red Wings utilized that energy from the crowd and began to slowly, but effectively take control of the territorial battle in this contest.
Unfortunately for the Wings, it took them early into the 3rd period to draw even with the Ducks, when Brendan Smith's blast from the point changed directions twice en route to back of the net.
However, it took only 2 minutes thereafter for Jimmy Howard to make perhaps his best and biggest save of the evening when he foiled Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf on a breakaway following a Jakub Kindl offensive zone turnover.
Without question, the most important outcome from this contest behind the overtime win may have been the play of Detroit's 4th line of Patrick Eaves, Cory Emmerton and Todd Bertuzzi. With the addition of Bertuzzi to this line, the trio appeared to click and play some strong hockey together, combining for 10 shots on goal and forcing Babcock to give this unit more playing time at the expense of Detroit's young line of Nyquist, Andersson and Brunner.
The additional depth this forward group provided this evening, along with the Red Wings getting strong performances from their stars as they did in their previous victory of this series, can only bode well for the Red Wings moving forward if it continues. That being said, despite the territorial advantage and domination of the shot clock, Detroit continues to provide high-quality scoring chances to the Ducks.
Continue to do that too frequently and we know all too well the Ducks have more than enough finishers to make the Red Wings pay for the continuous erros by their young defensemen.
The Red Wings outshot the Ducks 49-33 on the evening.
Game 5 awaits us on Wednesday night in Anaheim at 10:00pm ET.
Considering we are 48 hours removed from the Justin Abdelkader hit on Anaheim's Toni Lydman, it may seem pointless to provide comment at this stage of the series. However, my feeling on the hit is that it just signifies a continued shift by the NHL away from open-ice collisions with any contact NEAR an opponent's head.
A two-game suspension seemed a tad heavy (I thought one game would have sufficed), when you consider it did not appear Abdelkader's principle point of contact. Nevertheless, the fact Abdelkader exploded upwards towards the head to deliver the check, resulting in him leaving his feet after contact played a significant factor in the discipline handed down.
It should come as no surprise that there will always be debate and disagreement when a suspension is handed down (or not handed down in some instances). Nevertheless, despite what many consider to be inconsistencies in the punishment handed down for different offenses, I do commend the National Hockey League and Brendan Shanahan for issuing the short videos that assist in explaining their reasoning for the decision reached.
Ultimately, it's becoming reality that body checks and collisions once lauded 20-30 years ago, are no longer accepted as being legal hits. Similar to the NFL revising its rules in the hopes of limiting head injuries sustained by its players, the NHL will likely follow in their footsteps in re-writing the rule book in future years to substantially diminish the amount of physical contact in the sport. Whether that includes fighting remains to be seen, yet it does seem hypocritical that the NHL is fine with two guys delivering punches with closed fists and bare knuckles to the head of their opponent, but will issue suspensions over hard-hitting, bone-crunching body checks once considered a staple of a championship playoff hockey team.
Times do change. This change in philosophy is today's reality thanks to continuous research and modern medicine. If it helps enhance the lives of retired athletes decades from now, then it is certainly a worthwhile venture.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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