Experience Wins Game 1

Well, we were all waiting for last night's match-up and we were treated to a doozy of a start, before the Red Wings flexed their experience and skill to really hold the Penguins down to a 4-0 win. The Red Wings held the Penguins to only 7 shots in the last two periods of the game... in total. Keeping that sort of offense down takes a lot of coaching and a lot of hard work. Don't expect that sort of game on Monday, however. Although, you really can't count it out either, I guess.

Mikeal Samuelsson (Box 6), taken 4 times in the pool, was the biggest player in game, scoring two unassisted goals, including the eventual winner for a game-high (for the pool) 3 points. He certainly was the game's Johnny-on-the-spot, picking up a couple of turnovers and potting them behind Marc-Andre Fleury (Box 24). The unlikely hero was not a factor to the top six of the pool, but a few others might have been.

As mentioned before, Chris Osgood (non-pool) only finished the game with 19 saves on the nibht to earn the win and the shutout, but not a single one of those points ended up in a pool team's totals. Osgood did the job that he was hired to do and made some pretty good stops doing it. If the Red Wings are going to be successful through the remainder of the series, Osgood will have to continue playing at that level or better.

Also picking up points for the pool were Henrik Zetterberg (Box 1) and Dan Cleary (Box 5) picking up goals, while Tomas Holmstrom (Box 3) and Nicklas Lidstrom (Box 8) managed a pair of assists. Benson, Mike E., and Derek B. all scored a pair of points out of the game and gained one on Angela, who only managed a point from the Zetterberg goal.