Jimmy Howard went into the United Center with some Detroit bricks and put up a wall.

Howard faced an onslaught of Blackhawk pucks in our opening period. We killed two power plays and finally got some scoring chances as the first ended. Chicago had all this early energy, but they seemed to shoot their wad.

Detroit really outplayed them the rest of the game. We looked much better in the second, picking up where we left off offensively. Tomas Tatar scored a breakthrough goal in the period on a perfect pass that crossed the goalie before he could react.

Just as Red Wings fans celebrated his 24th on the year, the Blackhawks were allowed to go offsides, knock down our defender, and answer with a goal of their own. They cheat. The reffing was quite uneven, forcing us to furthermore kill a power play at the end of the period.

The final frame went back and forth, but Detroit was the only team stuck in the penalty box. Throughout the night, we only had one extra-man advantage, but Justin Abdelkader alone sat for six minutes. With only three minutes to go, Pavel Datsyuk got it ahead (like he’d been doing all night) to Darren Helm, who forced a deflection off a Chicago defender into the goal!

As oldschool and I again celebrated, within a minute, a shot trickled down our own defender Nikolas Kronwall, rendering him unable to find the puck, and before he could clear it, the game was tied. It was a night designed to break our backs. But we weren’t done yet.

In overtime, the Red Wings continued to outskate their opponent, shining with more space in four-on-four. Our lone defensive lapse started at the end of the five minutes, but Howard again held, letting us escape to the shootout.

Coach Mike Babcock tried to show the refs (to no avail) that their goalie was chalking up the ice in front of his net to slow the puck down. On Datsyuk’s first try, he had trouble finding any lift. Then, the Blackhawks snuck one past Jimmy.

Gustav Nyquist responded with a soft five-hole push past their goalie to tie it. Then, Howard stoned their try, keeping us even. Up skated Tatar, who made his way down before stutter-stepping their netminder to death and finishing him off, 2-1 Wings. It all came down to the man of the hour, Howard, who stayed with the skater and STOPPED HIM at the end of his leg pad, winning his first shootout of the season!

Our star goalie saved 32 shots on the night. My favorites were a point-blank breakaway, a sharp deflection off his shoulder pad, and a shot that walked the goal line before ending up out of harms way. Henrik Zetterberg was our unsung hero with over twenty minutes of ice time, helping sweep up the corners all game long.

After Detroit silenced the United Center for good, the place cleared out in a hurry. That will be their lone memory of the Red Wings this season. Miss us?