The game thus far has been nothing if not eventful. Games between these two teams usually are, and are usually played with some fire, but this first period was a bit more fire-filled than usual. Both teams are down a man, and they’ll probably both be down a man for a few games after.
Detroit’s Justin Abdelkader gets credit for the first goal of the game, in which he beat Kris Russell behind the net and slid it in front and seemingly around Brian Elliott. It appeared that the stick of Drew Miller redirected it into the net, so there could possibly be a scoring change on that.
Five minutes later, as Niklas Kronwall was going after the puck, Chris Stewart delivered a massive hit from behind that sent Kronwall into the boards shoulder/head first. The Wings immediately jumped on Stewart as Kronwall was being helped to the locker room, and the Blues and Wings both found themselves short a man. Stewart was assessed a five minute major for checking from behind as well as a game misconduct.
The penalty, served by Matt D’Agostini, was a prime chance for Detroit to go another goal up on the Blues, but St. Louis’ penalty kill isn’t their old penalty kill, and they stonewalled the Red Wings for five minutes straight, building momentum that, admittedly, should have been on the Wings’ side.
Adding to the Blues’ momentum was a power play on a penalty on Jonathan Ericsson for interference just under a minute after the Blues’ penalty expired. It took just twelve seconds for D’Agostini to sneak a puck past Jimmy Howard to tie the game. The Blues finished the period on the penalty kill due to a hook from David Backes, but so far, all of the momentum seems to be on their side.