Penguins at Red Wings - First Period - Game 1 - 5-30-09
FIRST PERIOD
20:00: At 8:22 p.m., EDT, the 2009 Stanley Cup final begins.
19:24: You'll need to keep the "Hossa, Conklin, Samuelsson, etc. was a Penguin" count at home yourself. We don't really have access to the audio of a broadcast.
18:47: Osgood gets tested early and he responds. A puck gets shot in at the net from the point. It hits off the end boards and bounces out to Maxime Talbot on the goal line. He punches the rebound on net. Osgood eats it up. A small scrum ensues.
17:00: As Crosby goes to the bench to end a shift, the puck
16:41: Fleury responds to his first real test. A Red Wings player drives a puck on net. Fleury knocks it down and covers. NBC couldn't be bothered to show a replay of the shot so we can't really tell you who shot it. Sorry.
16:29: Brad Stuart runs into Ruslan Fedotenko along the wall. Fedotenko ducked out of the hit and avoided most of it. Brook Orpik comes over and exchanges his thoughts on Bartter Syndrome with Stuart. We think.
14:30: Tomas Holmstrom and Talbot mix it up in the corner. Holmstrom gets away with a tackle. Talbot gets away with a trip.
13:42: Jordan Staal steals ap uck behind the Detroit net and dishes a feed to Miroslav Satan coming in. Satan can't quite get a puck on the net.
12:49: Chris Kunitz works his way into the slot and chips a shot at net. Osgood kneels to his right and directs the puck away.
11:55: As he's backchecking Fedotenko in the neutral zone, Hossa looks away and gets blasted by Brooks Orpik. Yeesh.... Hossa goes to the bench hunched over in a little bit of discomfort. Penguins fans in attendance stand and applaud. We're not sure Orpik didn't get away with a little bit of interference on that hit. Either way, what a check.
11:08: "LET'S-GO RED-WINGS!!! (clap, clap, clap) LET'S-GO RED-WINGS!!! (clap, clap, clap)"
10:47: "LET'S GO PENS! LET'S GO PENS!"
10:13: Matt Cooke gives Dan Cleary a little bit of a shove into Detroit's bench.
9:41: Malkin controls the puck behind the net, drags it out front and attempts to set up a wrist shot. Just as he seems like he's going to cock back, he looses the puck. He had a clean shot too
8:45: From the left wing, Staal chips a puck into the slot. Tyler Kennedy is there but the timing is wrong and Kennedy crashes right into the net without touching the puck.
8:01: Crosby just popped his nemesis from last year, Zetteberg, with a heck of a shoulder check in the neutral zone.
7:50: Kris Letang gets dropped by Stuart along the boards at the right point in Detroit's zone. As Letang is getting up, Stuart pops him in the head with a fist or forearm. The officials are letting just about everything go so far in this game.
7:37: Play is halted and a few shoves are exchanged. Unlike last year, these teams aren't wasting any time getting physical.
7:05: Hossa must be fine as he's played two shifts since his run in with Orpik.
6:22: A rough start for the Penguins here. Hal Gill flicks a puck up the boards from near the net. Stuart stops it and tosses it at the cage. It's off the mark and hits the end boards. It takes a fortunate bounce and hits off the back of Fleury's right leg and squeezes itself into the net. Lucky goal but Detroit will take it. The boards are supposed to be lively here so Stuart might have had something like that in mind when he took that shot. The goal is unassisted. Red Wings 1-0.
3:49: Malkin works his way down the right wing with Niklas Krownall defending him. Malkin whips a backhander that's off the mark.
3:22: Letang and Kirk Maltby basically Roman-Greco wrestle each other in the right faceoff circle near Fleury. Letang drops Maltby. Maltby gets up and slashes Letang. An official is standing all of 15 feet away and doesn't even think about lifing an arm. Wow.
2:24: Johan Franzen rips a wrister from the right wing just wide.
1:23: Stuart gets lucky then he gets unlucky. He loses control of the puck. Malkin is there to take it right off him. Malkin rips a hard heavy shot on Osgood. Osgood makes the save but gives up a poor rebound. Fedotenko is there to collect it and rips it by a stretched-out Osgood's glove hand. Awful, awful, awful goal for Detroit to give up. Stuart can't turn that puck over to a player like Malkin and Osgood needs to make a clean save. Kudos to the Penguins for converting that mistake. Malkin gets the only assist. Stuart and Osgood should share one. More than few happy Penguins fans are celebrating. Penguins 1, Red Wings 1.
0:00: End of period. Penguins 1, Red Wings 1.
FIRST INTERMISSION
-Pretty solid period of hockey all around. Really physical.
-Mistakes led to each of the goals. Hal Gill could've done a better job getting the puck out of the zone on Stuart's goal, which was aided by a really lucky bounce.
-Obviously, Stuart and Osgood can't be that careless with the puck when Malkin's in their zone.
-So far, so good for Fleury. He's been tested a few times and he was only beat once on a lucky goal.
-The Penguins have really initiated the contact tonight. Last year, they seemed a little hesitant and almost waited for things to pick up. This year, they are taking it to the Red Wings.
-Detroit has an 11-7 lead in shots.
-No one has more than one for either team.
-Somethings don't change. Detroit has a 9-4 lead in faceoffs (69 percent).
-Darren Helm is 5-for-5 (100 percent).
-Crosby is 3-for-5 (60 percent).
-Jordan Staal is 0-for-5.
-What injury? Nicklas Lidstrom leads the game with 8:09 of ice time.
-Zetterberg is right behind him with 8:03.
-Crosby leads the Penguins with 7:26.
-We are happy to report that the wireless here is working fine and dandy. Last year, it crashed and the NHL's IT guy was running around with hs hands up screaming, "IT'S DOWN! IT'S DOWN!"