Red Wings’ winning streak comes to an end against Philly

 

By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – Despite a 16-1-2 record at Joe Louis Arena against Philadelphia dating back to Nov. 1, 1989, Detroit was unable to keep those good times rolling Wednesday night.

Philadelphia scored five unanswered goals, including four in the third period, to come from behind and defeat Detroit, 5-3. Sean Couturier had two goals and two assists for the resurgent Flyers, while Tomas Tatar potted a pair of goals for Detroit in the loss.

“It’s a work in process. A new game is a new game. You’ve just got to stick with it and keep working to get to the next level all the time,” Kronwall said of the loss. “I thought tonight we didn’t do enough good things to win the game. It starts with the specialty teams.”

The special teams certainly told the story, as Philadelphia went 3-for-3 against a usually-solid Detroit penalty-killing unit, while Detroit struggled mightily, scoring once in seven man-advantage opportunities.

“Our penalty kill has been so good for us,” Babcock said. “I thought they got two goals on the same play at the end. We tried to adjust, but obviously we didn’t get it done. I just thought we should’ve been better.”

While Detroit obviously could have used them on the power-play, head coach Mike Babcock said there’s no use in talking about missing their leading offensive stars Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk because they’re simply not available to play.

“We don’t have them, there’s no sense in us talking about them, we’ve got to win games,” Babcock said. “That’s all there is to it. There’s an opportunity for every one of these guys right here to lead, to grab a bigger piece, to do their part.”

Tatar opened the scoring, on a short, two-foot feed from Drew Miller at the side of the Flyers net. Tatar took the pass and wired a shot over Mason’s shoulder and into the far-side corner of the net for the 1-0 lead and his fourth of the year at the 10:14 mark.

Three minutes later, Downie responded with the equalizer to tie the game up at one aside, his first as a Flyer since being re-acquired in late October.

Stephen Weiss notched his first point in exactly a month on a Red Wings passing play in the second period.

Gustav Nyquist took a bank pass off the boards at center ice from behind his own net, tipped the puck to Weiss, who quickly chipped a backhand pass over to Franzen. Streaking down the left side, Franzen let a booming slap shot go to put Detroit up 2-1.

With a 5-on-3 halfway through the second period, Tatar was able to dig out a loose puck in front of Mason and, uncovered by the Flyers, easily buried his second of the game into a virtually open net for the 3-1 lead.

Tatar certainly stepped up in lieu of the absent Zetterberg and Datsyuk, though he was visibly disappointed that the goals came in a tough loss.

“I was sure we were going to stick together and win the game, but unfortunately, we didn’t,” Tatar said. “The goals didn’t mean anything. I would be happy if we finished the game, but it happens. We can’t feel sorry about ourselves and just make sure we play better next game.”

Babcock said he thought Tatar was the team’s strongest player Wednesday night.

“I thought Tatar was a factor in tonight’s game. So, to me, that means you get more. If you’re not a factor, you get less. It’s real simple, so grab your piece while you’ve got a chance.”

Just seconds after the remaining power-play expired for Detroit, Matt Read pulled the Flyers within one to make it a 3-2 game.

Late in the period, Justin Abdelkader went head first into boards on a Luke Schenn boarding call. The former Michigan State Spartan headed to the dressing room immediately after the hit, but did return for the third period.

Philadelphia took over in the third period and pulled away from Detroit, getting a goal first from Couturier, who also had two assists in the contest, and then a pair of power-play markers from Giroux and Hartnell.