Strong week pushes Wings to top of TSN Power Rankings

Firstly, sorry for the lack of posting recently and no game preview of the Wings and Ducks on Saturday. I've been having some major PC issues of late which culminated in the mysterious and still unexplained inability to log into any of my google accounts. This, of course, makes it difficult to update a blog hosted by Blogger.com (ie. Google). Anyway, all that's in the past (hopefully) and we're now back on board and good to go.

So, it was a pretty successful weekend for Detroit, who find themselves with a somewhat leisurely schedule right now. The Wings week began with a four day break to prepare for home games against the Flames and Ducks on Thursday and Saturday respectively, and now are in the midst of another four day hiatus with another Thursday, Saturday home stand ahead.

The offensively embattled Calgary Flames found ways to find the net early on Thursday and give Babcock's boys more than a few headaches. Calgary was able to double their season total of first-period goals on the back of a strong display of offensive potency from 21-year-old future star Mikael Backlund. Henrik Zetterberg also nabbed his maiden tally of the season with the Wings sporting a 2-1 deficit at the first break.

Detroit's top two lines then began to take over as the Wings scored three goals unanswered to take a 4-2 victory for Jimmy Howard. Bertuzzi, Zetterberg and Datsyuk all getting two points each with Franzen scoring his fourth of the season and his second game-winner.

The Winged Wheelers were able to snatch another victory from behind two nights later, this time against Anaheim.

The Ducks had a one-goal lead midway through the third period and a 2-goal lead midway through the game, but Henrik Zetterberg with his 2 goal, 4 point night lead Detroit to victory, with a little help from his magical friend Mr. Datsyuk. Franzen also added another lazy goal for the game -- a feat he seems to find as difficult to achieve as a bowel movement. With continued health, this man will surely be Detroit's next 50-goal scorer.

#13 roofed the puck over Curtis McElhinney with under 12 seconds left in the game to steal the win as Anaheim agonized over two more points lost.

The game was not without controversy however. Early in the game Teemu Selanne his head down was rocked with a front-on shoulder hit from Niklas Kronwall. The play was without penalty due to the hit being completely legal.

A usually classy Selanne complained about the hit after the game claiming Kronwall was dangerous and got his elbow up. He also admitted he hadn't seen the hit. Perhaps if he actually looked at the hit he might understand that to outlaw a hit like this is to outlaw hitting from the game. The Flying Finn is understandably frustrated with the recent fortunes of his team and the harsh nature of their loss on the night.

The victories give Detroit a 5-1-1 start to the season and gave Jimmy Howard his 20th consecutive start without a regulation loss, tying his teammate Chris Osgood's post-lockout record. The team's recent success seems to have caught the attention of TSN, as the Winged Wheel moved from #7 to #1 in their Power Rankings, leading Central rivals St. Louis in #2 and Nashville third.

Detroit now awaits visits from Phoenix on Thursday, followed by Nashville on Saturday.