Youth, special teams lead Red Wings to victory over Stars on Ted Lindsay Night
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – The kids showed up in full force Tuesday night for the Red Wings.
Power-play goals from Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha, a 34-save performance from Petr Mrazek and a late 5-on-3 penalty kill led Detroit to a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars. Steve Ott added a late empty-net goal to help the Wings improve to 11-10-2 on the season.
“I think power play,” Larkin said of the team’s strongest facet Tuesday night. “Two big goals and we win by two goals, but the game-winning goal was on the power play. It’s nice for both units to get one and have some confidence. Other than that, I thought Petr was great tonight, he stood on his head and the PK, so special teams and Petr were outstanding.
“I think we still have a ton of work to do. It’s just after Thanksgiving and we’re just approaching December, so we’ve got a lot of games left. If we play the way we’ve played the last three, four games, I think you’ll see some wins coming our way. Obviously, there’s gonna be some games where it’s a one-goal game, we could’ve been there, but for us to close out a one-goal lead in the third and get two points tonight against a good team is huge for our confidence.”
Stars rookie defenseman Esa Lindell opened the scoring for Dallas just 16 seconds into the contest. Plymouth Whalers alum Tyler Seguin attempted to center the puck from the left of Mrazek and the puck deflected to the far side where Lindell pinched down, corralled the loose puck, threw it on goal and the puck deflected off Mike Green’s skate and up into the top corner.
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With just 38.9 seconds remaining and six seconds into the Red Wings’ first power play of the game, Larkin rifled home a wrister from the left side for his seventh of the season. Right off the draw after the penalty, Larkin fed Green across at the opposite point, took a return feed from Green, stepped in from the left point and fired a low shot that deflected off the skate of Stars defenseman Jordie Benn and past Lehtonen.
Larkin, who only has one helper to complement his seven goals, joked after the game about his pitcher-like 7-1 stat line – one that would be terrific for a Major League Baseball pitcher.
“It’s nice, it feels good to get rewarded and it’s still early and I still have a lot of games left, so I’m gonna keep it going,” Larkin said. “It would be nice to get some assists here and there… Cy Young Award or whatever, someone tweeted at me, but I don’t want to win that award; I want to get some assists.”
The Detroit youth movement struck again in the middle frame.
At the 7:56 mark and the Wings with the man advantage, Mantha capped off a beautiful give-and-go play on a 2-on-1 with captain Henrik Zetterberg. That marked Mantha’s third goal and fifth point in his eighth game of the season, and it also put the Wings up a goal heading into the third period.
“It all started with a great pass from Kronner on the breakout, and I saw Z was open, so I gave it to him,” Mantha said of the goal. “I thought he was gonna shoot it, but then he decided to give it back, open net, so it’s just a great play from the whole unit.
Mantha’s coach said it’s evident he has matured as a player and that he has been a “real good NHL player” since being recalled this season.
“He’s always had a real good ability and now his confidence is right there, and he’s strong on the puck,” Blashill said. “And he’s getting good opportunity and he’s making the most of it. He’s been a real good NHL player since he’s been up here.”
Mrazek stood on his head the rest of the way out for the Wings – including during a 5-on-3 Dallas power play – and Ott added an empty-net goal with 1:03 left in the contest to seal the victory for Detroit.
“I thought we had a specialty teams win tonight, and then our goalie was real good,” Blashill said. “We’ve said you’ve got to win games in the specialty teams lots in this league.
“It’s a huge thing, and you need to be able to (kill penalties) to win hockey games. And we haven’t done it enough this year where our specialty teams have won us games, and I think our PK has been coming for a while.”
The Red Wings next host the Florida Panthers Thursday night in an Atlantic Division battle.
Notes: Tomas Jurco made his season debut after missing the first 22 games recovering from injury. He skated 9:22 and recorded a shot on goal and a hit. Blashill said he liked what he saw from Jurco as he eased back into the lineup and expects him to push for more minutes as the season progresses.