DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings returned from a bad trip and rediscovered a winning formula -- sound structure, solid defense, and stellar goaltending.
They defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 Tuesday in a game they should win against a struggling team, especially at home, where Detroit has looked much different.
Alex Nedeljkovic, who has separated himself from Thomas Greiss in the goaltending competition, made 33 saves and the Red Wings (14-12-3) snapped a three-game losing, a stretch in which they were outscored 18-7.
“I thought we played a real good game,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought they played hard, we played hard, it was a real good hockey game. I thought we played much better defensively than we did on the road, back to what we were doing before we left LCA. I thought we were much better in our D-zone. Offensively, we used our speed to get on the D and gave them some fits that way, caused a lot of turnovers. Certainly had chances to be up more than we did.”
The Red Wings led 2-0 in Dylan Larkin’s power-play goal at 10:32 of the second period and Michael Rasmussen’s two-on-one goal at 12:55 of the third. The needed to hang on in the final two minutes after Anders Lee scored with 2:33 remaining after the Islanders pulled goalie Ilya Sorokin for the extra skater.
The Red Wings improved to 10-3-2 at home, a sharp contrast to their road record, which slipped to 4-9-1 following back-to-back losses to St. Louis and Colorado.
“We came off a good heater there, winning five in a row, then not too great on the road,” Nedeljkovic said. “To come back and get this win tonight was huge, obviously.”
The game might have taken a different turn if Nedeljkovic hadn’t stopped Anthony Beauvillier during a three-on-one break in the final minute of the second period.
“I was just trying to be as patient as possible,” Nedeljkovic said. “That’s all you can really do in those situations. Especially when they had some good players on the ice, too. Just be as patient as possible and not really thinking too much about what it meant in that moment. Obviously now it was probably pretty big.”
Blashill said that would have been a tough goal to surrender under the circumstances.
“I think goalies need to stop things they’re supposed to stop and then make big saves at big moments if you want to be a great goalie and that’s what he did tonight,” Blashill said. “I thought we helped him, allowed him to play well by playing good defensively, didn’t allow the Grade A’s we’ve been giving up and then he answered the bell by stopping those shots.”
The Red Wings need to improve their team goals-against average of 3.34, which ranks 27th in the league.
“We were really dedicated to playing good, structured in the D-zone,” Nedeljkovic said. “I think we got away from it a little bit on the road. Even if they had a few shifts tonight where they hemmed us in, we did a good job of staying structured and not giving them anything in the middle of the ice, which we were giving up a bit those last few games.”
The Red Wings need many more performances like this in order to remain in playoff contention.
“If we want to move up the standings, we’re going to have to continue to play games like that,” Blashill said. “We’re going to be in lots of close games and have to learn how to close them out.”
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December 15, 2021 at 06:01PM
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