Postgame: Hurricanes @ Red Wings – 3/24

There were a lot of players who made tonight’s win happen, a very solid overall effort, but I’ll be damned if Henrik Zetterberg didn’t put the team on his back tonight and carry them when they needed it most. I said it over Twitter (all of my commentary tonight was on Twitter, sorry about that forum users), he knows the playoffs are coming.

That said: Drew Miller. Does the guy score any goals that aren’t clutch? He’s got 14 goals this season and 4 are game-winners.

Speaking of trends, Todd Bertuzzi really does love the atypical goals. Spinoramas and batting it out of the air are kind of becoming his thing.

I love the fact that the Wings competed all night. Effort.

With Nicklas Lidstrom and Jakub Kindl back, the blue line seemed much more calm. Brendan Smith was returned to the Griffins after the game as the defensive corps will be 100% healthy once Jonathan Ericsson returns (supposedly on Monday).

With all the good things, there were a couple bad notes.

Really disliked Ty Conklin on the first goal against. He was down early and leaning off the post. Yeah, the shot ramped up on him, but that was an awkward position to try to make a stop from.

Danny Cleary’s penalty to give the Hurricanes a five-on-three was pretty boneheaded. His decline in play could be related to the knee injury that I’m sure he’d be resting if Johan Franzen (and Pavel Datsyuk before him) weren’t hurt.

Speaking of boneheaded… Tomas Holmstrom gets checked into Cam Ward and then called for goalie interference. What a joke.

But a big win anyway, putting the Wings back of the Blues by six points. No games in hand but the next two for Detroit are against Columbus and there’s one more matchup between the Wings and Blues this season, so there are points to be had.