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Mrazek gets by with a little help from his friends

MiHockey Staff
Photo by Andrew Knapik/MiHockey
Photo by Andrew Knapik/MiHockey

 

By @MichaelCaples –

DETROIT – Jeff Blashill mixed things up for the Red Wings’ first playoff home game, and no change was more noticeable than who started in goal.

Blashill opted for the Petr Mrazek between the pipes instead of Jimmy Howard, and the decision paid off for the Red Wings.

The 24-year-old netminder picked up the win in his first start of the Wings’ first-round series with the Lightning. The Joe Louis Arena crowd serenaded him with multiple “Petr, Petr” chants throughout the night, as Mrazek was welcomed back with open arms.

Mrazek has plenty of people to thank for his 1-0 postseason record, however. The defensive effort in front of him may have been the best all season for the Red Wings’ forwards and defense, collectively.

“…I know they switched goaltenders, but I don’t know if they even needed a goalie tonight, to be honest,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said after the contest.

After having to face nine shots from the Lightning in the first period, Mrazek only saw three in the second and four in the third. That’s a total of 16 shots from a Tampa Bay team that fired 34 and 31, respectively, during the first two games of the series.

After the game, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said that while Mrazek played great, Howard wasn’t necessarily the problem in Games 1 and 2. He also had praise for another player seeing his first action in the series – defenseman Brendan Smith.

“As I said this morning, I thought Jimmy Howard had done a good job for us. Petr did a good job too, but I thought it was also our most complete game. I thought Brendan Smith played great…I thought he did a great job.”

Mrazek deserves credit as well, of course. Without his 16 saves – a few of which came on quality scoring chances from the Lightning – the Wings wouldn’t have the opportunity to even the series on home ice in Game 4.

The Wings’ goaltender found his regular-season form in time to record his third career postseason shutout; according to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is only the third Red Wings goaltender to record three shutouts in his first eight career starts. The other two Red Wings’ netminders were Normie Smith and Terry Sawchuk.

Still, the Wings’ defense kept pucks away from their goaltender through the contest in Game 3, and when one did get through, they limited the Lightning’s second chances. Detroit blocked 14 shots in the home victory – a win that pulls them within one of evening their best-of-seven series with Tampa Bay.

The Red Wings stayed out of the penalty box, as well, and when they did get whistled for an infraction, they kept the puck away from Mrazek. Detroit held the Lightning’s power play to only one shot on goal during their two power-play opportunities.

“Those are hard on goalies, when you’re not seeing as many shots and you get a big opportunity, he makes the save,” defenseman Brendan Smith said. “That’s a good goalie, that’s what we need, and he helped us out there.”

Limited shots meant limited chances for the Lightning’s top line, led by Tyler Johnson, as well. The new grouping of Luke Glendening, Riley Sheahan and Justin Abdelkader played a key role in shutting down Tampa Bay’s top unit.

“Well I don’t want to speak for [the Johnson] line, I’ll let them speak for themselves, but from our perspective, I thought Glenny, Sheahan and Abby did a good job,” Blashill said. “I just thought throughout the lineup we had a lot of guys that played real well.”

“The one thing we talked about this morning is you can’t just go out there and defend all night,” Blashill said later, when asked more about the new Red Wings’ forward group. “With that in mind, we felt like Glenny, Sheahan and Abby could do a good job of making Johnson’s line defend them. I thought they did a pretty good job of that. They are big heavy guys, they can roll around the offensive zone. That’s the best defense, spending as much time in the other team’s zone as possible is the best defense, especially if you couple that with doing a great job of getting back so you don’t give up any rushes. I thought they did a pretty good job of taking away space but I also think they did a pretty good job of grinding in the offensive zone.”

Captain Henrik Zetterberg said his team’s Game 3 performance sets the stage for Tuesday’s Game 4.

“When they had (the puck), we minimized their time and space and we have to do that,” Zetterberg said. “They’re very skilled when they get time, so we did a good job here tonight. We’ve just got to win in Game 4.”