Howard, Red Wings shut out Flyers as playoff push races on
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – The Joe Louis Arena crowd was in playoff form Wednesday night, but the concept of playoff form is nothing new to the Red Wings.
The Wings continued their march toward the postseason with a 3-0 shutout of the Philadelphia Flyers, a team fighting with Detroit for one of the few remaining Eastern Conference playoff positions. Jimmy Howard stopped all 30 shots he faced and added an assist, while Darren Helm, Andreas Athanasiou and Kyle Quincey lit the lamp. Detroit improved to 93 points on the season, two ahead of Atlantic Division-rival Boston.
“It’s the paying attention to detail,” Howard said of the difference in the Wings’ play the past handful of games. “We’ve definitely limited our turnovers at the blue lines and we’ve been a lot smarter with the puck and not forcing things and just taking what’s given. Just gotta keep on that path.”
“If we continue to play as a five-man unit, as one, out there in all three zones, we’re very competitive and a tough team to play against.”
Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill echoed Howard’s thoughts.
“You ebb and flow a little bit as the season went along, I think we went through stretches we were great defensively and didn’t give up much and created, and I think we went through a stretch where we couldn’t score and we probably sacrificed our defense al little bit to get offense,” Blashill said. “And now, our leadership has got this team in a good spot where they understand you take what’s given, you try to create as much as you can, but you don’t force things that aren’t there, and that’s the key to winning games at this time of year.”
With the Wings’ biggest game of the season less than 24 hours away, Blashill said his team will do all in its power to recover and rejuvenate.
“We worked with our nutritionist and our athletic trainers and our strength coach to try to have as good a plan as possible to get rejuvenated here, so come tomorrow we’ve got great energy,” Blashill said. “It’s physical and mental. We’ll find a way to make sure we’re at our very best. There’ll be zero excuses tomorrow.”
While Howard continues to recapture his all-star form, Blashill declined to name a starting netminder for Thursday night.
Helm opened the scoring at 7:57 of the opening period with this 13th of the season following a strong Detroit forecheck. As the recipient of a fortuitous bounce that saw the puck deflect off the side of the Philadelphia net and out in front, Helm was able to chip a puck right up and over Mason.
Just 3:15 into the middle frame and with Philadelphia on the man advantage, Jakub Voracek missed a rim-around pass along the boards at the right circle. That gave Athanasiou the green light, as he pulled away on a breakaway and beat Mason with a backhand-forehand deke for the shorthanded goal and 2-0 lead.
“He’s one of those players who really takes advantage of his ice time and it’s gonna be interesting to see when he plays 18 minutes,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said of Athanasiou.
Meanwhile, Mason kept the Flyers in the game throughout the rest of the game, making a number of quality stops on the Wings, including a trio on Larkin on a single Detroit power play in the second frame.
That 2-0 advantage would hold for Detroit until the 18:17 mark of the third period, when Quincey scored an empty-net goal from his own zone to seal the victory.
“It was a playoff game right from the start,” Zetterberg said. “It was a great atmosphere out there and we’re looking forward to seeing them soon here again.”