The first big chance of the game fell to Jiri Hudler 5 minutes in but Lehtonen robbed the Detroit forward as he pulled off a big glove save. Hudler somehow not burying the puck as he was wide open on the Dallas doorstep with just the netminder to beat.
Filppula gave Detroit the lead at 8.02. Lidstrom and then White sent in shots wide on Lehtinen which managed to pull the netminder out of position and when the puck bounced
Hudler made it 2-0 with 2.54 left on the 1st period. Zetterberg miss hit a shot which flew straight into the skates of Hudler and into the net. It was judged a good goal on the ice and the review confirmed that no kicking motion was made.
Erikson cut the lead in half only 50 seconds later. He picked up his own rebound off Howard as the netminder made a save short side and circled back around infront and fired the puck back through traffic and behind Jimmy Howard.
However, Detroit regained their 2 goal lead with a minute left on the period as Zetterberg skated from deep in his own zone, layed a puck off to Filppula on the wing and he sent it across to Hudler who skated infront unchallenged and buried his 2nd past Lehtonen.
The Zetterberg, Filppula, Hudler line was absolutely on fire through the 1st period, scoring all 3 goals and running the Dallas defence ragged. If Lehtonen hadn’t been as good as he had been through the period then Detroit could have had a lead of 4 or 5.
It took just over 1 minute of the 2nd period for Dallas to score their 2nd of the game as Jamie Benn picked up on a puck that was purposely shot wide by Goligoski and quickly fired it in before Howard could get across.
Corey Emmerton scored at 3.51 to put Detroit back into a 2 goal lead as he fired the puck from behind the goal line into the back of Lehtonen’s skates and into the goal.
With just over 7 minutes gone Michael Ryder made it 4-3 as he fired in a shot from the wing the crept passed Howard on his blocker side.
Franzen then made it 5-3 at 11.46 of the period as Datsyuk stole the puck behind the Dallas net and his quick pass was one timed high into the net by the Swedish forward.
That was to end the scoring in the 2nd period even though Dallas came extremely close towards the end of the period as the post was struck by Pardy on a shot from the point.
It took 14 minutes of the 3rd period before the lamp was lit again and it was Ryder with his 2nd as Dallas yet again closed to within 1 goal. He picked up a puck just inside the Detroit zone and delayed on making a pass before choosing to shoot and send it high glove side past a screened Howard.
With time running out for Dallas to get the game tying goal, Lehtonen was pulled but to no avail as the clock ran down and Detroit took a 5-4 win.
It was a fast and furious opening 2 periods with goals galore. Both netminders conceded where they should have saved but both pulled off great saves as well. There was a distinct lack of penalties called in the game, the only one being 15 seconds into the game on Bertuzzi for Holding The Stick. This meant the game was played even handed throughout and made for a riveting contest.
Another 2 points for Detroit as they moved to only 1 point behind Western leading Chicago.
- Adam Yates
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