Red Wings beat Devils Friday night at The Joe
By @SKubus –
DETROIT – Defensemen fueled the attack for Detroit at Joe Louis Arena Friday night, as the Red Wings trumped the New Jersey Devils by a 4-2 final in a battle of injury-riddled Eastern Conference clubs during the home team’s Military Appreciation Night.
Jakub Kindl scored to give him goals in consecutive games for the first time in his career, Brendan Smith potted the game-winner and Niklas Kronwall recorded a goal and an assist. Johan Franzen tallied the other marker, while goaltender Jimmy Howard stopped 15 of 17 shots in the win.
“We had a tough trip, and I don’t think we played the way we wanted,” Kindl said. “Today, we got off to a good start and our mentality was just to shoot the puck and get some traffic in front of their goalie and I think that’s what we did tonight.”
Pavel Datsyuk wad scratched just before game-time due to a groin injury he suffered in the morning skate, marking the fourth injury to Detroit regulars. Joakim Andersson took his place. New Jersey, meanwhile, also has four regulars out of its own lineup, including top forwards Adam Henrique and Michigan product Mike Cammalleri.
“Every night has to be a team effort, but definitely people have to pick it up a little more when Pavel’s not in,” Smith said. “He’s the ‘Magic Man,’ he’s one of the best in the world, so it opened the door for some guys to step up.”
With the likes of Datsyuk, Weiss and Quincey injured, the defensemen stepped up with the goal-scoring Friday night. Kindl said the last time he scored goals in back-to-back games was “probably in juniors.”
“That’s what we’re trying (to do), but we’ve got to try to help our forwards, as well,” Kindl said of joining the rush. “Every time we see the hole, we try to jump in, but we just can’t jump in blind through, but every time there’s a chance, we’re just trying to jump in.”
New Jersey struck 3:18 into the opening period, as Steve Bernier potted his first of the year, sweeping the puck around Howard for the 1-0 lead.
But late in the period with 1:05 remaining, Kindl fired a shot from the point that tipped off Devils defenseman Adam Larsson’s stick and past Schneider to even things at one aside. And just 33 seconds later, Smith walked down the middle and unleashed a low wrister from between the tops of the circles that fooled Schneider and sent Detroit off the ice with a 2-1 lead and 14-3 shot advantage after 20 minutes.
“He’s playing really well, he’s shooting the puck on the power play,” Kronwall said of the difference in Kindl’s game lately.
At 11:41 of the middle frame and on the power play, Franzen caught New Jersey captain Bryce Salvador fishing with a poke check, deked around him and wired a shot on the short side past a screened Schneider to extend the lead to 3-1. Niklas Kronwall drew an assist on the goal to give him 304 career points, passing Gary Bergman for fourth all-time in Detroit defenseman scoring.
Kronwall wasn’t done there, as he recorded his third of the season at 17:39 of the second stanza. The Red Wings’ blue liner blasted a shot off the end-boards that took a wild, textbook Joe Louis Arena bounce off the boards, and then off Schneider’s back and in the net to make it a 4-1 game.
Jordin Tootoo got on the board against his former team early in the third period, as he buried a rebound past Howard to pull the Devils to within two. But that was as close as New Jersey would get, as the Red Wings held on.
“Obviously, it was a good game for us,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “We knew they played last night. We didn’t give up much in the first. They had one scoring chance and they basically scored on it, but I thought our power play was good and we stuck with it and got a win.”