Wings capture shootout win over Blue Jackets on Nick Lidstrom Night (with photos)
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – “It’s a big two points.”
Those were the first words out of Jeff Blashill’s mouth after Tuesday night’s 2-1 shootout victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, and on a night Nick Lidstrom was honored for his Hall of Fame induction, the points couldn’t have come in a more dramatic fashion.
“Coming off four games where we weren’t able to get a win, now obviously we had points in the last two, but at home here, we needed the two points,” Blashill said. “We’re at that point of the season, you’ve got to find a way and we found a way.”
MORE: Nick Lidstrom talks return to Hockeytown as Wings honor his HHOF achievement
Riley Sheahan scored a shorthanded goal in regulation and again in the shootout to help lift Detroit to the win. Andreas
Athanasiou notched the shootout winner, while Petr Mrazek stopped 28 of 29 shots he faced.
Photos by Michael Miller/MiHockey
“It’s huge, I think those first eight spots in our conference are so close, so we need to pull out wins like this,” Sheahan said. “We had a little rough patch there on the road, so to get back home and play in front of our own fans and have some success is good for us.”
The Blue Jackets got on the board first, as Columbus alternate captain Boone Jenner potted his 22nd of the season with 1:42 left in the opening period. Jenner raced down the left side of the ice with Wings defenseman Alexey Marchenko, outmuscled him, corralled the puck and fired one past Mrazek on the short side. That sent the Red Wings off the ice after the opening 20 minutes, down 1-0.
Coming off their first game of the season in which they were shut out, the Wings entered Tuesday night as the lone remaining team without a shorthanded goal on the season.
At the 13:59 mark of the second stanza and with Niklas Kronwall in the box for hooking, Sheahan delivered a big shorthanded marker for Detroit. As Marchenko chipped a puck out from the Wings’ blue line toward the Columbus goal, Sheahan rushed down the ice to pick up the puck and give himself a breakaway from the top of the right circle and in. His low far side shot beat McElhinney to even things up at one aside.
“I had a step on the guy and saw a lane, so kind of just got a fortunate bounce,” Sheahan said. “Their player slashed me at the last second, I kind of fanned on it actually, but luckily it went in.”
With no scoring either way in the third period, despite a plethora of exchanged chances by both sides, the game went to overtime.
Late in the extra frame, there was some controversy as Mrazek made a huge stop on the Blue Jackets and, noticing all skaters on the ice but one – Pavel Datsyuk at center ice – were trapped in the Detroit zone, he advanced out, dropped the puck from his glove and passed it up to send Datsyuk on a breakaway. However, the whistle was blown in what was believed to simply be an early whistle at the time, but Blashill later received clarification from referee Wes McCauley.
“He was explaining, I guess by the rule he can’t skate with the puck and play it, so I’ll look into that, but by the rule, he can’t skate with the puck and play it,” Blashill said. “We thought it was a quick whistle, but that’s going to happen in a game.”
In the shootout, Sheahan and Athanasiou sealed the deal for Detroit.
“It was a bit of a hunch,” Blashill said. “Sheahan had scored on the breakaway earlier and then Athanasiou I know is a real good shootout guy, having had him in Grand Rapids. He’s a real good shootout guy, so it was a bit of a hunch.”