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Wings hold on for 3-2 victory over Sabres

MiHockey Staff

 

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(Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey)

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – Though it certainly didn’t seem like Luke Glendening’s empty-netter would hold up to be the game-winner, indeed it did Monday night.

The Wings got out to a 3-0 lead and held off the Buffalo Sabres’ late barrage to take a 3-2 decision at Joe Louis Arena. Riley Sheahan and Dylan Larkin also scored for Detroit, while Jimmy Howard turned away 18 of 20 shots he faced. Detroit improved to 38-27-11, moving up to 87 points in the wild card race to keep pace with the Philadelphia Flyers, who also won Monday night.

“It’s huge, obviously a little embarrassing on Saturday what happened and to come back and get two points – might’ve been a little shaky at the end there, but we still got the two points, so we’ll take it,” Glendening said.

Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said there’s room to correct errors, but thought the group played well enough to deserve the two points.

“I thought we had to be good, and I thought we were good obviously until the very end there,” Blashill said. “I thought we played a good game. We didn’t them much, didn’t give up many shots, didn’t give up a whole lot of chances. Obviously, there’s still some corrections we can make to some mistakes, but overall I thought it was good.”

Larkin potted his 22nd of the season on the Wings’ third power play of the opening period, burying a rebound past Buffalo netminder Chad Johnson off a Zetterberg shot in the slot at 18:32. That marked Larkin’s 44th point of the season, tying Zetterberg’s rookie mark from 2002-03.

Near the halfway point of the second stanza, Sheahan decided to take over on his shift, going end-to-end to score his 12th of the season and third in as many games. That gave the Wings a big insurance goal and 2-0 lead heading into the third period.

“I just tried to get up ice and I saw a little bit of room to skate,” Sheahan said of his goal. “I kind of just kept going and kept going and made my way through there. I didn’t really mean to do that or have that in mind, but I had some room and I got a good shot off, so it was good.”

With exactly three minutes remaining in the final frame, it seemed the Wings had things wrapped up with Glendening’s empty-net goal.

However, Zemgus Girgensons struck ten seconds later to get the Sabres on the board. And 1:11 later with Johnson on the bench for the extra attacker, Sam Reinhart pulled Buffalo to within one.

“It was a little nerve-wracking,” Glendening said. “Obviously, when you’re up 3-0, you don’t expect that to happen. Howie played unbelievable all game, but especially down the stretch there and really saved us.

The whole game was a real team effort. I think everyone was selling out for the team. It’s just part of what we have to do, and it’s a huge two points for our team.”

Detroit heads to Montreal to take on the Habs Tuesday night for the second of back-to-back games.

“We certainly had the puck a lot, but I did think we broke out well, we got out of our end well,” Blashill said. “I didn’t think we did quite a good enough job of getting into their end at the blue line. I think we had a few too many turnovers in the first period at the blue… I thought overall, the only thing I’d say is we could’ve hit the net more and we could’ve had more net presence, so that’s something we’ll focus on going into Montreal.”

Gordie Howe’s 88th birthday

The Red Wings celebrated Mr. Hockey’s birthday Monday night at The Joe. Gordie Howe turns 88 on Thursday, and he was in the building to take in the game and spend some time with the players before the game.

“It was really cool, obviously I never got to see him play, but you see pictures and obviously all the stats and to see some clips of him playing… it’s really cool to see what he’s done for Detroit and he’s a true Red Wing,” Larkin said.