Forward Marian Hossa scored his first goal as a Wing in spectacular fashion notching his 300th career goal to win the game just 23 seconds into overtime. Teammate Pavel Datsyuk’s quick stick work from behind the net resulted in a perfect set-up pass to Hossa who fired the puck behind NY Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
Hossa’s timely goal gave Detroit their first win at home in their third attempt this season. While Hossa had three assists in the previous four games of the regular season and one assist in the second period of tonight’s game, he had yet to get the puck in the net. With such high expectations from fans, it had to be a great feeling to get that monkey off of his back.
“I knew I was getting chances. I tried to stay calm on the ice, and off, too. there was no panic,” Hossa said. “I knew the goals would come, and tonight I got the first one. Hopefully, now we can roll.”
The Wings came out strong in the first period with two goals in the first 3:44 of the game. Mikael Samuelsson scored first just 28 seconds into the first period by tipping a rocket shot from Derek Meech at the point. Meech played in his first game of the regular season as Niklas Kronwall’s linemate, Brad Stuart, was out with a bruised knee. Just over three minutes later, Samuelsson notched another point by assisting Johan Franzen on the Wings second goal of the game. The Mule scored his third goal in five games to give Detroit a two goal advantage. Valtteri Filppula earned his second assist of the night.
Detroit headed to the locker room with a 2-1 lead at the first intermission after Rangers right wing Ryan Callahan got one past Wings goaltender Chris Osgood, who made 28 saves in the game.
Tomas Holmstrom set up shop in front of crease and tipped in a Nicklas Lidstrom shot scoring his fifth goal in as many games a little over halfway into the second period. The two goal lead didn’t last long as Rangers left wing Nigel Hawes scored less than three minutes later on another Scott Gomez assist.
Within the first four minutes of the third period, the Rangers took the lead thanks to two goals by Aaron Voros, who first tipped in Michal Rozsival’s shot and then banked the puck in off of Osgood. It was after that second goal that head coach Mike Babcock decided to call a timeout and talk to his players.
“I just asked them who this team was. Where was the team that was playing the whole game until that last little bit?” he said. “People don’t understand. We won the Stanley Cup, but this is a new year. You have to earn things. People say we’re going to be fine, but the only way we’ll be fine is if we earn the right to be fine.”
With less than four minutes remaining, Jiri Hudler capitalized on a Rangers penalty (too many men on the ice) when he pounced on a Lundqvist rebound from defenseman Niklas Kronwall’s hard shot from the point. Samuelsson notched his third assist of the game.
While the Rangers were still able to get a point out of the game by making it to overtime, the team was disappointed that they allowed the Wings to come from behind and take the win from them. Goaltender Lundqvist made 40 saves in the game and has yet to win a game against Detroit in four attempts. Just last night, the Rangers defeated Toronto in a 1-0 shootout victory.
Detroit bounced back from a 4-3 OT loss to Vancouver on Thursday and seemed determined to prevent a third loss at home this season much to the delight of the loud crowd in attendance at the Joe.
