A few days ago I was a bit concerned. There was not a single somewhat memorable game so far in the second round. Sure a handful of them were close but there wasn't a high anxiety-type game that you were glued to the edge of your seat.
Tonight's game 6 between Detroit and San Jose' changed that. The Joe Louis Arena had the Wings skating hard and fast and causing an amazing amount of pressure. In the first period alone Detroit out shot the Sharks 18-6. That means they tripled San Jose's amount.
The second was even more action packed especially at the end of the period scramble in front of the Detroit net which ended in Tory Mitchell COMPLETELY capsizing Tomas Holmstrom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHyHjTwaveM&feature=feedu.
The third was even better when rookie Logan Couture got a somewhat lucky bounce and squeezed the puck through Jimmy Howard for San Jose's goal with 16 minutes left in the game. At the time, this took the life out of the fans AND the players as the Sharks dominated play for the next few minutes. But then a deflection by Zetterberg several minutes later sent the building rocking and then a minute and fifty four seconds later, Filppula scored on a gorgeous pass by Datsyuk to take the lead in the game with 7 and a half minutes to go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUW72k50GpU&feature=feedu. The first goal for Detroit was argued by the coaching staff of San Jose' that Kronwall skated onto the ice from the bench too soon before blasting a puck that was tipped in front by Zetterberg. And sure enough replay showed that Kronwall entered the ice when the D man that was coming off was still at centre ice. This happened behind the play though so the refs didn't see. Then with Niemi pulled, Helm sends the puck half the length of the ice and into the empty net. Once again, San Jose' coach Todd McLellan complained to the refs that it was too many men on the ice. And once again replay showed that at one point Detroit had 7 guys on the ice (with one of them skating to the bench for a change). This didn't mean that San Jose' was perfect either in this category. On Filppula's goal, the Sharks had 7 guys on the ice for a good few seconds before a couple of them jumped off.
Then of course came the last second fights. Pavelski fires it on net upon entering the zone and crashes the net and after bumping howard the slightest bit, everybody jumped. A huge scrum.
This was a great game and sets up a possibility of an even better game for game 7. So far I predicted both game 6's correctly with Detroit winning and Vancouver winning. I still think that the Sharks will wake up on home ice for game 7.
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