Detroit Red Wings vs. Phoenix Coyotes Game 2: Wings Fans Thinking Sweep?

Ridiculous officiating aside, the Red Wings put together a solid Game 2 effort, Pavel Datsyuk in particular. The star forward is making Wings fans forget that Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg even had 80 points in the regular season and finished eighth in the league in points.

Datsyuk led the way to a 4-3 win with a point on every goal the Wings had. Riding the cheers of the 20,000 faithful fans at Joe Louis Arena, the Red Wings jumped out early to a 4-0 lead despite a devastating hit to Johan Franzen from Coyote pest Shane Doan. Franzen went to the locker room with some help from trainers.

The second period watched the Yotes put one goal in, entering the third down 4-1. Some horrible calls from the referees led to another huge chunk of power play time for the Coyotes much like Game 1, except this time Phoenix would cash in.

A return from Johan Franzen would spark the fans up as he received a standing ovation from over half of the fans at the Joe. Franzen came back looking pretty brutal, deemed "Franzenstien" by some fans which just added to the respect and cheers for the Mule.

Two power play goals pulled the Coyotes within one goal with less than 15 remaining in the third period on some "iffy" calls by the referees. Must be nice to be owned by the NHL (just my opinion). The fact that Darren Helm got a call hitting Ed Jovanovski and Shane Doan did not was ridiculous.

Personally, I don't believe either should have been a penalty, and the Yotes sure got a break on the interference to Valteri Filppula which was an absolute joke.

Anyway, I don't want to tear off onto a tangent about Gary Bettman and the joke him and the referees are turning this game into because that is not what this article is about. So to conclude: Jimmy Howard played solidly, turning aside 33 shots and actually "stealing" this one as they held on to take Game 2, 4-3.

Hopeful Facebook statuses from Wings fans made mention of brooms and sweeps. It may be a bit early to do so, but considering the Red Wings have played better on the road all year, it should be a great next two games at Jobing.com arena.

My personal three stars:

Pavel Datsyuk: Three assists and a goal? He's the reason the Wings are up 2-0.

Darren Helm: Always plays with intensity; big hits and a big goal.

Johan Franzen: Not even human, this guy has got to be a machine. Joe Louis was brought back to life because of him.