Rink to Rink is a daily recap of all the previous day’s NHL action. Just one game last night; twelve tonight.
Red Wings 3, Colorado Avalanche 2: If there was any fear that there would be a letdown in hockey action immediately following the Olympic games, well the Red Wings and Avalanhce did their best to quell them. It certainly looked as though the Wings would stomp all over the Avs from the start of the game, as they burst out to a 2-0 lead with goals by Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen.
Yet some incredible goaltending by Craig Anderson a big surge by Colorado tied the game in the second period. It might have taken the Avs a period or so to wake up, but when they did the game instantly became an exciting start to the post-Olympic NHL action.
Of course, what would an Red Wings game be without a controversial disallowed goal? A goaltender interference penalty on Tomas Holmstrom (who else?) negated a go-ahead goal for the Red Wings in the second period, although it seemed as thought the call by Kerry Fraser was iffy at best.
In the third, yet another insane puck-handling show by Pavel Datsyuk led to Nicklas Lidstrom’s game-winning goal on the power play. The Avs now hold onto the 8th spot in the West, although there are five teams within four points of each other gathered from 7th to the 11th spots.