Late defensive lapses cost Wings in 5-3 loss to Winnipeg

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – For Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill, there were too many defensive mistakes that ultimately made life too easy for the Winnipeg Jets Friday night.

Fueled by Brandon Tanev’s late pair of goals and Commerce native Connor Hellebuyck’s 30-save performance, the Jets topped the Wings in their final game at Joe Louis Arena on Friday, a 5-3 final. Luke Glendening, Henrik Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader scored for Detroit, while Petr Mrazek allowed four goals on 30 shots.

“We’ve got to finish it out for sure,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We obviously lost a couple assignments there where we allowed them opportunities to have goals that I don’t think we should’ve. We can’t miss those assignments and we gotta make sure we finish the game.

“Too many times we’ve shot ourselves in the foot, so we’ve gotta do a better job with that. We’ve gotta make sure we make people earn their goals, and we didn’t do a good enough job of that.”

Niklas Kronwall returned to the lineup for Detroit to play his first game of the season. The veteran defenseman skated 18:14, recorded two shots, two hits and a block.

“I thought Kronner played pretty good,” Blashill said. “One thing with Kronner, he’s got a great brain, he’s got great smarts, he’s got great poise under pressure.”

In a game that featured four former Wolverines, one of them opened the scoring for the Wings, just 3:04 into the contest, as Luke Glendening redirected home a Danny DeKeyser pass from the point. That marked Glendening’s first of the season.

But a pretty goal by Patrik Laine tied things up at one at the 15:30 mark. The Finnish rookie sensation tipped a puck around a Detroit defender to himself, batted it down out of mid-air, stepped in and beat Mrazek with a low, far-side wrister.

With 10:20 to play in the middle frame, Zetterberg put the Wings up by a pair, as he batted home the rebound generated from a Tomas Tatar shot. Though originally waved off, the officials determined it was a good goal upon video review.

Just 2:02 into the final frame, Mark Scheifele tied things up for his Jets, jamming home a rebound. Though there was no goal called on the ice, it was reviewed and determined the puck had crossed the goal line, despite Mrazek’s best efforts to mask any evidence.

With 9:12 remaining in regulation, Abdelkader wired home just his second of the season, taking a pass from Tatar at the left circle and blasting a slap shot past Hellebuyck on the short side. That put the Wings up 3-2.

But shortly after, Tanev potted his first NHL goal, tipping a puck up under the crossbar and out. It wasn’t originally caught by the officials, so play briefly went on before the play was reviewed at the next whistle and confirmed to be a good goal.

And with 1:16 remaining, Tanev potted his second of the game on a breakaway to put the Jets up 4-3 and deliver the final blow to the Wings. For good measure, Nikolaj Ehlers added an empty-net goal.

The Wings fell to 6-5-1 on the season with the loss.