Orange Alert: Peril Grows for Cup Contenders

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs an average 1.5 games into its annual Conference Semifinals installment, volcanic activity seems to be bubbling up underneath NHL's Ice-land.  Speculation fueled naturally by media outlets aspiring for pristine Finals ratings would have you believe an inherently obvious conclusion: The Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins are locked into a third consecutive collision course in a rivalry only properly concluded in blockbuster trilogy fashion.  Sidney Crosby is the consummate team leader who will not be rattled, while young goaltender Jimmy Howard will flourish behind the experience and savvy of the postseason's most dominant franchise. Seedings be damned, oddsmakers certainly wager that Detroit will oust the oft-talented, ever-hapless playoff edition of San Jose, and puckhead historians would nod their approval.  Jaroslav Halak had been re-humanized by Crosby's Pens in a 6-3 Game 1 defeat in which he was pulled, and no eight-seed could overcome the loss of their top defenseman in Andrei Markov.  And yet, all assumptions made, the blue-chip stars of the National Hockey League are having the red carpet usurped by an unlikely cast of up-and-comers.

Through one game in the Western Conference's 1/5 matchup between San Jose and Detroit, Sunday's Game 2 seemed the traditional moment that Detroit would shred through the one goal barrier that held them off 4-3 in Game 1; winning this one going away.  The Wings were caught in a frail moment that witnessed them relinquish 3 goals in a 1:16 and were forced to battle their way back across the final two frames, only to be shown the door by a 5-on-3 power-play goal by "Little" Joe Pavelski.  This sting of this loss was most evident in the blood slowly leaking from Johan Franzen's high-sticking wound, for which he was given a tripping minor.  Detroit pressed for a goal into the closing seconds, and certainly wouldn't be shorthanded in key moments of Game 2, that is, until the Crease Police took over.

   The staple of success in the past two Cup runs for the Wings has consisted of condensing the goaltender's crease with traffic, shielding sight lines for the netminder with pesky veterans like Tomas Holmstrom; allowing blue line sharpshooters such as Brian Rafalski pick a side and slap away at the twine.  This, combined with the perplexing moves of offensive powerhouses Pavel Datysuk and Henrik Zetterberg, has made the Wings virtually unbeatable when maintaining discipline and executing properly.  Sunday night, however, invading Evgeni Nabokov's domain was off-limits.  Called for 6 goalie interference penalties all playoffs a season ago, Detroit piled up 3 in Game 2, at least two of which appeared incidental and somewhat embellished by Nabokov.  Another penalty on Todd Bertuzzi dubbed as holding was at the most a borderline tripping call, dumbfounding the hawkish head of Detroit, Mike Babcock.  "The reality is that you can't have momentum if only half your players can get on the ice because they are sitting in the penalty box all night long," Babcock lamented. 

Reality morphed into deja vu as Pavelski slammed home another 3rd period tally on a two-man advantage to knot the score at 3 a side.  More notably, perhaps, the American-born Wisconsin alumnus has broken out of the shadows of his heroic silver medal teammates from Vancouver in Ryan Miller (G; Buffalo Sabres) and Patrick Kane (RW; Chicago Blackhawks).  Pavelski has soared into rarefied air with 3 consecutive multi-goal games in the playoffs, the first player to do so since Pittsburgh's Prince Mario Lemieux notched 3 such performances during the Penguins 1992 Cup claim.  Into the fore, out of the shadows, and now possible championship foreshadowing as "Little Joe" took another big step towards a Finals date and Conn Smythe candidacy with his 14th point of the playoffs and a +7 on ice rating.

The striped skaters got under the skin of the Detroit bench, leading to some unrefined penalties including both a hooking and slashing call when the Wings were protecting a 3-2 lead.  As the team imploded, so did their luck, and ironically enough, their equipment.  Still very much alive at 3-3 just over midway through the final period, Wings captain Niklas Lidstrom's stick burst into splinters attempting a blue line slapshot with seven and change to play, triggering an odd-man breakout for the Sharks, and ultimately a Joe Thornton game-winner fired passed Jimmy Howard.  As a nightcap to another unusually coarse performance from the 2008 champs, a too many men on the ice penalty in the waning seconds prevented an effective empty net rush from materializing, and Detroit climbed aboard a red-eye back to Hockeytown facing their first 2-0 series deficit since 2003.  And while one favorite damaged its odds of survival with moments sloppier than today's Gulf Of Mexico, the fairy tale of the Montreal Canadiens found its pixie dust with a sparkling, Shamwow! special on Sunday in the Steel City.