All the Time in the World; Red Wings 4, Canucks 3

If Mike Babcock was anything like my dad, and the Red Wings were me in high school, he'd be criticizing his players to no end about "Always leaving everything to the last second!"

Nevertheless, two points is two points and what I like most about this victory, is that the Red Wings had every excuse to lose this one to the NW division-leading Canucks.

With a few injuries, short bench with only 10 forwards, second of back-to-back games and a few bad bounces early, one might've expected this one to become somewhat of a blowout after heading into the first change with a 2-0 deficit, after having outshot their leading opponents, 17-8.

But in the second period, fortunes changed as the Wings continued to apply the pressure and were eventually rewarded for it much to the chagrin of the Vancouver crowd, as Todd Bertuzzi snapped his 19-game goal-less drought.

Then irritation turned to outrage for the Canucks' faithful, as they witnessed a tying-goal only 5 seconds later. A Vancouver Canucks record for quickest successive goals allowed as well as a Red Wings franchise record for goals scored.

5 seconds!!

What can you do in five seconds?

In five seconds, I can get one shoe on my foot and begin begin to tie the laces. Pavel Datsyuk on the other hand, can win a face-off, deke through a few defenders and fire a 40-footer past an Olympic gold-medal winning goalie. Not bad, eh?

But more goodness was still to come in the second period as while on the penalty kill, Valtteri Filppula seized on a mis-handled puck from Alex Edler and streaked in all alone and backhanded it by Roberto Luongo for his eighth of the season, giving the Red Wings a 3-2 lead after 2 and stunning the Canucks.

The Vancouver Canucks were however, a league-leading +37 in the third period of a hockey game and added to that despite being outplayed again by the gutsy Detroiters, and tied it up with a goal from the Sedins that seems almost mandatory in a Canucks game these days.

Overtime comes and much of the same happens, with the Wings outplaying the 'Nucks outshooting them 4-1, the last of which came under all too familiar circumstances, with 0.3 seconds left in the OT frame from the stick of Henrik Zetterberg. A shot which happened to get by the goalie to end the game, giving Detroit the two points.

Detroit now sits 2 points ahead of Calgary with 11 games to play for both teams. Nashville is 4 points ahead with 10 games left and Colorado now sits 7th with a 3-point lead over Detroit but have a game in hand of the Wings.

WOW Factor
There were two obvious WOW moments in this game for the Wings, but Pavel Datsyuk's long-range goal on Roberto Luongo seemed to instill a confidence into the Wings that this game was theirs to lose and while the scoreboard wasn't lopsided, the Wings thoroughly outplayed the Canucks and deserved the win.

Special Teams
The refs weren't too busy in this one with only 2 PP's each way, but Detroit's special teams were again a big reason for the win. While Detroit weren't able to convert with the man-advantage, they were very effective down a man, and without Flip's shortie in the second, the Wings probably would have had nothing to show for this game.

In Net
- Jimmy Howard stopped 29 of 32 shots for the Wings in his 18th consecutive start.
- Roberto Luongo faced a whopping 54 shots for Vancouver, stopping 50 of them.

Next...
Detroit heads home today and prepares for a 3-game home stand, the first game being tomorrow night against the defending Stanley Cup-champs, Pittsburgh.