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Red Wings take crucial two points in 3-2 win over Wild (with photos)

MiHockey Staff

 

Sheahan_Wild
(Photo by Michael Miller/MiHockey)

 

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – With just a handful of games remaining, victories are at an absolute premium for Detroit.

Friday night’s tilt with the Wild was no exception, and though Minnesota stayed right in it, the Wings left Joe Louis Arena with a 3-2 victory and a valuable pair of points. Riley Sheahan scored his fourth goal in the last five games, while Tomas Tatar lit the lamp, and Dylan Larkin potted his team-leading 23rd of the season for Detroit. Jimmy Howard was sharp, turning aside 20 of 22 shots.

“Very satisfying, two points that we definitely needed,” Howard said. “We started right from the drop of the puck tonight and played a full 60 minutes. I was very proud of the effort from all the guys in front of me.”

Photos by Michael Miller/MiHockey

With four games left – including a Saturday-night date with a team that shut them out at The Joe on March 13, the Toronto Maple Leafs – Blashill said he and his team are embracing the moment.

“It’ll be a real big game,” the Red Wings’ head coach said. “That’s what you want at this time of year, you want big games, you want these opportunities, this is what it’s about, so let’s go and have fun with it and go play great hockey.”

Larkin opened the scoring on a Detroit power play, as his wrister from the right circle deflected off a Minnesota stick and floated past Dubnyk to give the Wings the game’s first goal. It was originally credited to Sheahan, but was properly changed during the first intermission. Niklas Kronwall and Henrik Zetterberg drew the helpers. Larkin’s goal marked the seventh-straight game the Wings had scored a power-play goal.

At 2:32 of the second period, Tatar extended the Wings’ lead to 2-0, taking a nifty pass from Gustav Nyquist and burying it short-side from a sharp angle past a fooled Dubnyk.

Jonas Brodin would respond to pull Minnesota to 2-1 heading into the third period, beating Howard with a one-timed slap shot from the right point.

However, just 2:08 into the final frame, the Wings found a pivotal insurance goal to regain their two-goal lead. This time, there was no mistake about Sheahan scoring his 13th of the season, as he corralled a rebound in the slot and put it past Dubnyk for the 3-1 lead.

“He’s got great jump right now, some of that is confidence,” Blashill said of Sheahan. “Confidence is a funny thing and when you get confidence you just play way better and it’s hard to explain and it’s hard to get, you gotta earn it and he’s earned it through his work and in his play.”

Mikael Granlund struck back for the Wild, as he fired a wrist shot that hit the far post and deflected in.

“Granlund got the second one post and in there, and it didn’t seem to faze us,” Howard said. “And that’s a good thing. It’s good to see and we just picked up right where we left off and got to work again.”

From there, Howard and the team defense locked it down to earn the 3-2 win.

“Right now we just want to focus on getting wins,” Sheahan said. “Obviously our conference is so tight, the games against Boston and Philly are the ones people outside the locker room look forward to, but I think for us we need to take it game-by-game and shift-by-shift and focus on the game at-hand.”