The sun is shining and so is Mortiz.
Well, not literally. Michigan has been short on sunshine lately but between the Lions taking down the Packers on Sunday night and Tuesday night’s offensive fist-fight between the Wings and Jets — the figurate sunshine is so bright that I can feel my brain melting.
12 goals in 60 minutes. Would you believe the Red Wings would manage to win a game like that?
1st Period
What an eventful 20 minutes of hockey.
It took a few minutes for both teams to show some life. The offense came alive when Jake Walman scored his fourth goal of the season with a dandy move at the blue line:
~chef’s kiss~
It seemed like whenever the Jets would start to get their legs set and create big chances, it fizzled off. Maybe that is a compliment to Detroit’s defense. Maybe it isn’t.
Jonatan Berggren continued his hot streak with his seventh goal of the season — another strong play from Moritz Seider:
Just when every thing was going right for the Red Wings they had to go and end up on the power play. Talk about bummersville, sorta. While it wasn’t in time to register as a PP goal, Oskar Sundqvist picked up his sixth of the season thanks to another STRONG play from Moritz Seider (three points in the first period):
Winnipeg showed signs of life about three minutes before the horn when Neal Pionk cut into Detroit’s lead. 3-1 after 20.
- Moritz Seider’s best period of the season and perhaps beyond that
- Jake Walman mic’d up is about as boring as you would imagine
- I can’t say enough good things about Jonatan Berggren — he’s appears to be the complete package
2nd Period
The offense was singin’ in the second period of this game for both teams. Winnipeg seemed to figure it out and started to cycle and keep the puck moving which put the Wings in a pinch more times than I care to write about. The good news is that Detroit’s offense kept up. It started with a big 13th goal of the season for Dominik Kubalik, who found himself with a two-on-one chance alongside Oskar Sundqvist:
The Jets applied the pressure now that they were down three goals again. Their push earned them two goals and put them within reach of tying it up. One of those goals was from former Red Wing Sam Gagner.
Things went sour for the Winnipeg Jets when they ended up going down five-on-three, and believe it or not — I swear to you.. The Red Wings made something happen. Moritz Seider achieved a major milestone (career-high points in a game) — It was also Dylan Larkin’s 14th goal of the season:
5-3 after 40.
- Pius Suter had a couple of noticeable plays on defense
- Andrew Copp got penalized for a player tripping over his stick???
- Rick Bowness is pissed
3rd Period
The final 20 minutes followed the overall theme of this game: Offense, offense, offense. Both teams traded goals within the first 90 seconds of the third period. It started with Nikolaj Ehlers about half-a-minute in. Robby Fabbri would follow that up around the 1:52 mark to make it 6-4:
The Red Wings took two penalties in the third period — one of which put Wings fans in an all-too familiar position. Mark Scheifele picked up his 24th of the season to make it 6-5. The Jets would continue to apply pressure to the Wings, at a point leaving them hemmed into their own zone. Winnipeg’s bench would eventually surrender to the idea of pulling Connor Hellebuyck which ultimate led to the dagger from Lucas Raymond.
FINAL: 7-5, Red Wings
- Shoutout to Ville Husso — he hung in there
- Joe Veleno had a great game
- Not much to show for Tyler Bertuzzi but I expected that coming off that absence
- Ben Chiarot had a very bad game (copy & paste)
You love to see it.
Detroit was hosting one of the NHL’s best teams and their offense went punch-for-punch to grind out a much-needed win at home, and their first of 2023. A lot to love from the home team, but big credit is due to Moritz Seider for putting up a career game. That would earn him the first star of the game. Outside of Mo’s performance, there was a lot more to love than there was to hate. A satisfying win.
The Wings will host the Maple Leafs at LCA on Thursday, January 10. They’ll look for some revenge after Saturday’s 4-1 loss in Toronto.