In New Jersey, the Devils kept it dirty early with some scrumming on Tomas Jurco, who fought back nicely. Petr Mrazek was in goal and had action early, too, ultimately allowing the game’s opening goal after losing his face mask.

Detroit responded with Nikolas Kronwall’s slapshot to tie the game. From there, it got ugly. The Devils scored two more times in the first period thanks to some gay penalties. Then, less than a minute into the second, they took a 4-1 lead.

The Red Wings got on their horse and scored another of their own shortly after. Rookie “X-Man” powered home the centered pass for his first career goal. After killing off a 5-on-3 power play, Detroit earned another opportunity as Justin Abdelkader cashed in our third goal of the game. As the period closed, we only trailed one.

Into the 3rd, the Red Wings used some beautiful passing to tie the game. Kronwall gave it to Jurco for the give and go, then swooped in front of the net before dumping the puck back to his teammate for an easy shot. In the closing minutes, Detroit stopped a two-on-one breakaway that surely looked like New Jersey would score. Overtime.

Mrazek really kept his composure through that third period and overtime. Even when he lost track of the puck. No one could score in the wimpy five minutes, so a shootout was called upon. We don’t seem to understand the philosophy of a penalty shot. The goalie is at such a disadvantage, the key is to just aim well and take a strong shot. These glamorous moves are only for the movies. Our best scorer Pavel Datsyuk over complicated his try, preventing even a tough save.

Luckily, Peter “Griffin” was rolling. He stopped the first, then made a huge glove deflection on the second. This gave Gustav Nyquist the opportunity. He didn’t hesitate, firing a shot promptly into the back of the net. The Devils sent out their third skater, who was denied by Petr! He pumped his stick in celebration – the Red Wings stormed back for the 5-4 win!