Red Wings vs Black Hawks, Game 1

Red Wings vs Hawks 5/17/2009

Final Score: Wings 5, Hawks 2

Both teams looked very good at times today. The Wings outshot the Hawks 43-32.

The Wings scored on a couple of nice high shots, which is what you have to do to beat a good butterfly goalie, and Khabibulin is a good butterfly goalie.

The first Wing goal by Dan Cleary was a great high shot, just under the bar on the glove side. The second Wing goal by Johan Franzen was a wrap around along the ice just inside the far post. The third Wing goal, by Mikael Samuelsson was another great wrist shot up that beat Khabibulin high on the short side. Samuelsson showed great patience and when the Hawk goalie went down to his knees, he was beaten by a high wrister. The fourth Wing goal was a tip by Cleary of a shot by Johan Franzen that went up and over the Hawk netminder. The fifth Wing goal was an empty netter by Henrik Zetterberg.

Chris Osgood, the Red Wing netminder, played a solid game. He faced 32 shots and stopped 30 of them.

Both sides looked out of sorts at times, but both teams played well for stretches of time. The game was physical at times with both teams laying on some good hits.

I expect both teams to play better in game 2 on Tuesday night.