Red Wings blow lead, recover in rare shootout win (with photos and video)
Photos by Jen Hefner/MiHockey
DETROIT – It looked like things were going as smooth as could be in the second period for the Red Wings.
Until a sloppy third period allowed the Minnesota Wild to score three straight to force overtime. And with nothing going there either way, the Red Wings managed to close it out in the shootout to earn its fifth-straight victory by a 5-4 final.
Petr Mrazek stopped 34 of 38 in the win and denied both Wild shooters in the shootout. Captain Henrik Zetterberg recorded three assists, Gustav Nyquist tallied a goal and an assist to go with his shootout goal and Pavel Datsyuk scored the shootout winner. Rookie Teemu Pulkkinen scored his first career NHL goal in the contest, as well.
“We scored probably too easy; we tipped pucks, pucks went in, we were up 4-1 and we haven’t really played that great to be honest with you,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “So then you get standing around, kind of waiting and next thing you know, the game is tied. They did a lot of good things and we weren’t great, so we found a way to win a game, which is really positive, won in a shootout, which is positive for our team.”
Teemu Pulkkinen talks about the Red Wings’ win
The Red Wings enter the NHL All-Star break riding a five-game winning streak, owning a 27-11-9 record on the season near the top of the Eastern Conference, something Babcock said he was happy with, but not content with.
“When Howie got hurt, if you would’ve said that Mrazek was going to go 4-0, McCollum was going to go 1-0, Jim Devellano would’ve called that, but I don’t think the outside world would’ve believed him,” Babcock said.
With 10:51 remaining in the opening frame, Pulkkinen took a drop pass from Stephen Weiss in the high slot and absolutely wired a one-timer home for his first career NHL goal.
Then, at the 13:22 mark with Pulkkinen in the sin bin for goalie interference, Wild captain Mikko Koivu tied things up just seven seconds into his squad’s power-play, slipping a low shot underneath Mrazek from the right circle.
But defenseman Jonathan Ericsson’s second of the season at 14:30 regained the one-goal lead for Detroit that sent the Red Wings off the ice up 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Detroit continued to ramp up the offense in the next 20 minutes, as Nyquist potted his 19th of the season–and 11th power-play goal of the season–and Xavier Ouellet popped home his second of the year to extend the Red Wings’ lead to 4-1.
Zach Parise scored his 18th of the season at 6:01 to cut the Wild deficit to a pair, and exactly four minutes later, Thomas Vanek scored a gorgeous backhand goal to make it a 4-3 game, waltzing through the Red Wings slot virtually uncovered to pot it.
And with 6:39 remaining in the period, Parise intercepted an ugly Jonathan Ericsson giveaway and buried it all alone in front of Mrazek to tie the game up at four aside. That vital mistake forced overtime, where nothing went either way.
In the shootout, Datsyuk and Nyquist each converted their opportunities, while Mrazek turned aside both Parise and Koivu to seal the victory.
“When you get two points, it’s a good game, but I think we stopped playing a little bit in the third period,” Pulkkinen said. “But two points is huge for us and now five games in a row, so it’s good to have a little break here and come back full of energy.”