Wings win fourth in a row, lose Ian White

Final Score (Hi Dad!)
Red Wings 5, Stars 2.

The Skinny
Streaky streaky… five up, six down, and now four up again. Detroit finished their season-long six-game homestand with a 5-2 victory over the Pacific Division-leading Dallas Stars. The game began as a goaltending duel, with Stars backup Andrew Raycroft every bit up to the challenge, and Jimmy Howard continuing to make some fantastic saves to keep the Wings in it early. Three more goals from the blueline (White, Kronwall, and Stuart — finally) to go with a pair from the forwards (Franzen and Helm), and the Wings have very quietly scored 17 goals in the last four games.

Speaking of Ian White, he left the game in the third period after blocking a shot with his face — sacrificing his body for the team. According to the team, he took a puck just under the right eye and required “some” stitches and did not return. Here’s hoping he’s okay to play on Tuesday, since he’s been very impressive in his first fifteen games as a Red Wing.

The game would get a little messy with 14 seconds left. Stars’ leading scorer Jamie Benn would drop the gloves and kick the everloving shit out of Jakub Kindl. Kindl never really had a chance to get his feet under him and didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of getting into a scrap.

Bullets of Importance

• This one was all Detroit early. In the first five minutes, the Wings took seven shots (at least three of them beautiful chances that were brilliantly turned away by Raycroft), hit a post, and had a power play opportunity. After those five minutes, Nick Lidstrom would take an interference penalty impeding Loui Eriksson’s progress… and guess who scored on the following man advantage? Eriksson scored his 9th goal against the Red Wings with two seconds left in Lidstrom’s minor and it was 1-0 Stars. There was a little hullabaloo about whether or not the goal should have counted since Sheldon Souray swatted the puck and it appeared that Dallas touched the puck next, which should have caused a whistle. They showed the replay several times and I have no idea if Kronwall touched it or if it should have been blown dead, but no one made a stink about it on the ice, so they probably knew it was a legit goal.
• The scales swung in Detroit’s favor again as the first period was coming to an end. All of the pressure was in Raycroft’s end, and the Wings finally capitalized on a bomb from Kronwall, who has scored in back-to-back games for the first time this season. Homer was putting up a nice screen, and he may have gotten a piece (in fact, the goal was originally credited to him), but even he says he didn’t touch it, telling Keating in the intermission “I saw that I got the goal, but I don’t think I touched it.”
• The defensive scoring would continue as Ian White put a bomb past Andrew Raycroft in the opening minutes of the second period. Brad Stuart would also score halfway through the third. At that moment, 8 of the team’s last 17 goals were scored by the blueline.
• Johan Franzen would break the 2-2 tie at the open of the third, netting his 9th on the season. Darren Helm and Jiri Hudler would turn a takeaway in the neutral zone into an insurance goal, with Helm getting a little redemption for an earlier flub.

Bullets of Less Importance

• Fox Sports’ in-house hostess, Shannon Hogan, delivered a dumpster fire of a mess of a first period segment. I hate to make fun, and they certainly don’t make it easy for her — asking her to do her stand-ups in the aisle while people are trying to get beer or back to their seats — but Christ almighty… Mispronouncing players’ names, losing her place, repeating the same phrase several times. It was painful to listen to, especially considering the information she was passing along was irrelevant AT BEST. She would later redeem herself with solid second and third period segments.
• It was decided on Twitter that we should make it known that we’d like “Play That Funky Music, White Boy” played when Ian White scores. After mentioning it, I got support from Marlon and Taylor — and feel free to tell @Tunes_By_T you think Wild Cherry’s kickass funk anthem should make it’s way into the rotation… and we’re still working on Joe Louis DJ Bingo, so if you can think of any songs they ALWAYS play in the arena, leave them in the comments. We’ve got a nice list started, but can always use more.

The Disch Approved “Horsecop” of the Game
Ian White. Dude scored a bomb of a goal, kept a definite Stars goal out of the net with his noggin, got some repairs in the room, and rocks one of the league’s best ‘staches in Movember. Great acquisition this summer, we hope he keeps it up.

The Riggy “Shitbox” of the Game
Hard to pick one tonight… no one was minus and there were only two penalties taken. But one of those penalties (Nicklas Lidstrom’s interference call in the first) led to a power play goal for the Stars. So, I guess, by default, we have to go with Lidstrom. And I feel dirty for having written that.

What’s Next?
Tuesday night, the Wings head to St. Louis to face Ken Hitchcock’s new team. It’s the fourth Wings Wings Tuesday, and I’ll be behind the bench for Central Catholic High School for our fourth game of the season. Wish the Wings and the Vikings luck!

Photo Credit: Gary Malerba, AP