November 11th, 2009
Posted in Detroit scored four times early in the first period and Niklas Kronwall had two power-play goals and an assist to lift the Red Wings past the Columbus Blue Jackets 9-1 on Wednesday night.
Justin Abdelkader tallied two late goals; Dan Cleary, Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi each had a goal and assist, and Kris Draper and Ville Leino also scored for Detroit which, despite major injuries to several key players and a recent loss to lowly Toronto, are 5-1-1 in their last seven games.
Henrik Zetterberg added two assists, and Jimmy Howard made 25 saves to improve to 2-2-1 for the Red Wings.
Detroit’s victory was the most lopsided in the series. Columbus defeated the Red Wings 8-2 last season in Detroit.
Rick Nash had the only goal for Columbus, which had won two straight and earned points in five consecutive games. It was the Blue Jackets’ worst home loss.
Detroit picked up where they left off after last season’s sweep in the first round of the playoffs. The Red Wings outscored the Blue Jackets 18-7 in that series.
Poor breakouts, spotty defensive-zone coverage and shaky goaltending helped Detroit take a 4-0 lead just past the midway mark of the opening period.
Steve Mason, who had a .878 save percentage and 4.27 goals-against-average in the four-game series, allowed three goals on six shots and was yanked after playing just 7:32. Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock put him back in to start the second period. He allowed eight goals on 27 shots.
It only took a minute for Dan Cleary to make it 1-0 Detroit.
A pass from defenceman Fedor Tyutin hit off the back of Samuel Pahlsson’s skate and bounced to Zetterberg, whose shot from the high slot deflected to Cleary for the easy stuff.
A bad Columbus turnover resulted in a Datsyuk shot from the circle. Jan Hejda then swept the puck off the wall to Brett Lebda at the point, who fired a shot that Draper redirected at 7:32.
Mason’s replacement, Mathieu Garon, made some difficult saves for the rest of the period, but couldn’t see around Bertuzzi’s screen to stop Kronwall’s third on a slapshot from the point with the Red Wings on the power play to make it 4-0 at 11:57.
Nash backhanded in his 12th at 10:56 of the second period. But Detroit countered with two goals in 33 seconds about two minutes later to expand their lead to 6-1.
Kronwall scored at 4:17 of the third.