Game Recap: STL 2 - DET 4

There was a bit of a boredom factor in the 1st Period. Not because the Wings were bad, but because they had no urgency. They didn't suck as bad as we've seen earlier this season, by any means, but neither did they seem to display any of the hunger I'd expect at this point in this particular season. Plus, the turnover thing was a little crazy, and led to Kariya's goal at 5:39. Brad Stuart even said it in the intermission interview, that they needed to figure out why they weren't playing hard enough and fix it. I'm all about fixing it.

The 2nd Period started with a rush and a chance by St. Louis, but the Wings finally seemed to find their feet and Z potted an ugly one at 0:26. then he and Bert followed up at 4:35 thanks to the first few minutes of sustained pressure of the game, which made things much more interesting that the 1st had been. James made some nice saves (I feel bad calling him Jimmy after he manned up against Pens#87), and during a 4 minute PK, Miller had a nice breakaway attempt that, of course, he was unable to finish. The pace of the whole period felt much faster than the first, but the last 6 or 7 minutes were blistering. It was awesome.

Of course, the highlight of the 3rd Period was Bambi's gorgeous sweep of a bad rebound from right under Conklin's nose at 13:11 in the period. Seriously, right under his nose. Rafi had fired in a shot from outside the blueline that bounced right off Conks, who seemed to waffle over what he wanted to do with it. It dropped to the ice right in front of him and Filppula came sprinting in between two Blues, swept the puck up with his stick and darted to Conks' left to sneak the puck in behind it. It was a thing of beauty. And with just 12 seconds to go in the game, Bambi sealed the deal with an empty netter. Loved it.

Friday night's game against the Wild is next up, and it also happens to be H2H night, as well as the anniversary of the one and only actual Fight Night at the Joe, the Brawl in Hockeytown, the Day of St. Darren (McCarty). Let's win one for all those reasons and more. Let's win it because we need it.

Let's win it because we're the Red Wings.