Wings fall behind early in last game before Christmas, lose 4-3 to Devils

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – An early 3-0 deficit was too much for Detroit to overcome, as the Wings fell to the New Jersey Devils Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena by a 4-3 final.

Dylan Larkin, Mike Green and Riley Sheahan scored for Detroit, while Petr Mrazek made ten of 11 saves in relief for Jimmy Howard, who was pulled after allowing three goals on six shots. Kyle Palmieri potted a goal and an assist for New Jersey, while Corey Schneider made 25 of 28 saves.

Despite the result, Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill and his team believe they did a number of good things throughout the game.

“I thought, from an effort and intensity and focus, I thought we had all those things,” Blashill said. “I thought we had lots of good stuff. The result’s certainly not good enough. Our guys understand that, especially against a team we’re fighting for a playoff spot with, but we talk about process. There was lots of that, lots of good in the process tonight.”

Palmieri opened the scoring at 12:05 of the first frame with a tremendous individual display of effort and wit. Palmieri entered the Detroit zone and sent a hard pass off the end boards that bounced right in front of the net. He skated through three Red Wings to retrieve the puck right in front and chipped a backhand shot past Howard to break open the scoring.

And 42 seconds later, Trenton native and New Jersey captain Andy Greene sent a shot-pass right in front onto the tape of Jordin Tootoo, who tipped home his third of the year. Former USA Hockey National Team Development Program and University of Michigan defenseman Jon Merrill drew the other assist on the goal.

David Schlemko took a Palmieri pass and skated in to beat Howard with a wrister to make it 3-0, the third goal in a span of 2:12. That was enough for Blashill to pull Howard out and send Mrazek into the game.

“You have to switch the momentum, so Jimmy’s been real good for us all year, but you get in those spots and you make decisions and we decided to make that decision,” Blashill said.

Larkin responded with a late power-play goal to pull Detroit to within two, wiring a wrist shot past Schneider. It was Larkin’s 13th of the season, but his first-ever power-play goal and only his second power-play point on the year.

New Jersey entered Tuesday night with a 9-0-3 record when scoring first this season and 7-0-0 mark when leading after the first period.

Detroit inched even closer late in the second period with the man-advantage, as Brad Richards fed Green for a one-timer that blew past Schneider on the far side to make it 3-2.

The game also began to get chippy in the period, with five roughing minors called in the frame. Dylan Larkin was involved, as he was taken hard into the end boards on a race for a puck he dumped in. Devils defenseman John Moore shoved Larkin from behind and he went crashing in, also receiving an unintentional knee to the head from Moore. Shortly after, New Jersey’s Damon Severson went after Larkin for thinking he knocked over Schneider, which he did not, and Abdelkader stepped in to wrestle Severson to the ice.

Blashill had no comment on Moore’s shove, but said the league needs to protect its young stars.

“Referees throughout the league have to know that young stars in the league, when they get targeted, they need to make sure they do a good job of calling penalties even if they’re close because we don’t want our young stars in the league to get targeted,” Blashill said.

Just 2:24 into the third period, Sergey Kalinin added an insurance goal for New Jersey to make it 4-2. Jakub Kindl’s breakout pass from the corner up the middle was tipped by Tyler Kennedy and went right to Jacob Josefsen just to the right of Mrazek. Josefsen took the shot and Mrazek made the first save, but Kalinin was there to bury the rebound into a wide-open net.

“You can’t afford to give up goals on basically, what I would say, give’em chances or gifts, and obviously we had a couple gifts tonight, the first one and the fourth one. If you have two gifts, it’s hard to win in this league against a really good team. I thought it was unfortunate. I thought Jakub Kindl played a great game outside that one play, but those are two you just certainly can’t give away.”

Sheahan’s fourth of the season with 5:37 remaining in the third period once again made it a one-goal game and injected life into the building.

“We got a lot of guys in here that can play in those pressure situations and I think we feel comfortable in any game situation, just came up a little short today, but I think we have some positive things we can take from the game,” Sheahan said.

But unfortunately for the Wings, that was as close as they would get, as the Devils took the contest by a 4-3 final.

The Wings have three days off before heading to Nashville to take on the Predators on the day after Christmas, beginning a stretch that sees the Wings play the next nine out of ten games on the road. Sheahan said he’s thankful that the league grants time off around Christmas, considering other sports leagues do not – the NBA holds games on Christmas Day.

“All the guys have families they can settle down with and spend some quality time with. Some of us are fortunate enough to get to go home, so it’s definitely really nice to have a little break, but we can’t take the time for granted. We’ve got to stay in it, keep our minds in it and come back on the 26th ready to play.”