Red Wings’ home win streak increases to 16
By Michael Caples –
DETROIT – Jimmy Howard said he could never get sick of fielding questions about a winning streak.
Considering that the Red Wings have now 16 straight home games, however, it seemed possible that the repetitive questions could get bothersome.
Howard stopped all four of the Blue Jackets he faced in the shootout, helping the Wings preserve and extend their streak at Joe Louis Arena with a 3-2 win.
“It’s good for us,” Howard said of the 16 straight wins in Detroit. “Home’s been really good for us, playing in front of the home crowd, and it’s been kind to us too.”
Valtteri Filppula scored the deciding goal in the shootout, following failed attempts by Pavel Datsyuk, Jiri Hudler, and Todd Bertuzzi.
“You’re always hoping to get to shoot, but I think we have a lot of good shooters that can take it too,” Filppula said. “You never know, but you always have to be ready if you get a chance.
“It depends a little bit what the goalie does. He seemed to be out quite a bit, so I felt like I wanted to deke, and I’m just happy it went in.”
Filppula moved higher in the Wings’ shootout line-up because of the absence of Henrik Zetterberg, who was given a 5-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct for his hit on Nikita Nikitin at the halfway point of the second period.
Zetterberg followed Nikitin into the Columbus corner, and made contact with Nikitin’s back before the Columbus defenseman crashed awkwardly into the boards.
Coach Mike Babcock said that while there was no malicious intent on Zetterberg’s part, there wasn’t much to argue about from the play.
“No there wasn’t, but that’s the way they’re calling it,” Babcock said. “They’re trying to protect the d-men, I talked to Denny LaRue right away, I just said Denny is that the way you’re calling it, and he said that’s the way. Why wouldn’t they? We’re trying to protect the players, I don’t think Z had a hard time with it, I don’t think anybody did, it was just a matter of it was an unfortunate play. I hope the guy’s not hurt.”
Niklas Kronwall and Nicklas Lidstrom scored the regulation goals for the Red Wings. Howard’s 17-save night resulted in his 29th win of the season.
Ryan Russell and Nikitin scored the goals for the Blue Jackets, while Curtis Sanford gave up two regulation goals on 31 shots.