Red Wings allow two late goals, fall 2-1 to Sabres (with photos)

 

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – The Red Wings had a chance to extend their point streak to 14 games Monday night at Joe Louis Arena, but encountered an all-too-familiar problem: closing out a third-period lead.

Heading into the final frame up 1-0, the Red Wings allowed two quick goals in the final five minutes, as the Buffalo Sabres topped Detroit by a 2-1 final. Ryan O’Reilly and Johan Larsson scored for Buffalo, while netminder Chad Johnson was solid, stopping 31 of 32. Brad Richards scored his second of the season, while Petr Mrazek allowed two goals on 30 shots.

The two third-period goals against dropped Detroit to a minus-ten goal differential in the final period this season. The Wings are a combined plus-nine in the first two periods combined.

“I think you develop (a killer instinct), it’s still a young team, that’s something we work on,” Richards said of closing out leads. “Sometimes, these things have to happen to realize you bear down even more in all those situations. Sometimes, one-goal leads in the third period, that’s where if you’re patient, you can create a lot of offense because they’re pressure.

“It seems it’s happening probably a bit too often, but something we’ve got to learn as a team, go into third period with leads, we’ve got to close it out and lock it down, and I’m sure we’re gonna talk about that and go over that more this week with some time off.”

Photos by Michael Caples/MiHockey

Head coach Jeff Blashill echoed the veteran forward’s thoughts.

“We’ve got to have more poise and confidence in those situations,” Blashill said. “There’s a difference between confident and too relaxed. You’ve got to be confident, but urgent, and we’ve got to be better in those situations. We’ve got to grow as a team. But which way are we gonna go? Are we gonna grow or are we gonna feel sorry for ourselves? The league doesn’t care about our issues so we better grow.”

The teams traded power-play opportunities in the opening frame, neither one striking to help keep things scoreless. A Brendan Smith hooking minor with one second left in the period to give Buffalo an extended power play to begin the second period.

Early in the second stanza with Buffalo still on the power play, a puck bounced past Rasmus Ristolainen and Helm blew past him on the chase. Johnson came out to challenge, Helm poked the puck past him, but Ristolainen’s back check prevented Helm from getting a shot into the empty net.

At 4:01 of the frame, Richards scored his second of the year to open the scoring. Pavel Datsyuk brought the puck into the Buffalo zone, pulled up a little as he approached the net to freeze the defenders, dished a pass across the ice to Richards, who was able to bang home the one-timer for his second goal and third point in five games.

“It’s good to be that close to the net and get a wide-open look,” Richards said. “It seems like I’m getting chances a lot of nights, some of that is you keep doing that and odds are they’re going to go your way, so I’ve just got to keep focusing on that and play good away from the puck and I’m confident that I’ve been here 100 times where sometimes pucks just don’t go in, but you’d rather be getting the chances, getting the shots and having the goalie have to make saves. That keeps your hopes up.”

With 5:04 left in the period, Tomas Jurco broke in for a semi-breakaway, was hooked on the hands and was awarded a penalty shot. He came in slow on the attempt and tried to beat Johnson low on the glove side, but Johnson denied him to keep the Sabres’ deficit at one.

In the third period, two late goals by Buffalo made the difference.

First, with 4:14 to play, Ryan O’Reilly tipped home a Sam Reinhart shot to even things up at one aside. And then with 3:13 left, the Sabres’ Johan Larsson got the puck right in front of Mrazek all alone, turned and fired to give his team the 2-1 lead. Blashil challenged the play on the basis of being offside, but video review confirmed it was a good goal.

With just seconds left in regulation with Detroit pushing, Johnson came up with a miraculous save on Gustav Nyquist, who appeared to have a wide-open net to the right of the goal.

“We’ve been playing a little bit sloppier lately, so maybe this was a little wake-up call here, just got to get back to playing the right way for 60 minutes,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said.

Detroit hosts the Vancouver Canucks Friday night, where the team will search for win No. 800 at Joe Louis Arena.