Wings defeat Canucks in Thursday-night tilt at The Joe (with photos)
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – After snapping a five-game losing streak on Tuesday in Philadelphia, the Red Wings have bounced back to the tune of a two-game win streak.
Fueled by a trio of goals from Dylan Larkin, Brendan Smith and Steve Ott, the Wings topped Ryan Miller and the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena, a 3-1 final. Jimmy Howard continued his sound play between the pipes, stopping 36 of 37 shots for his fourth win of the season.
“We’ve still got to be better,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I think when the game’s on the line, we’ve gotta score. So we have one in the third and you can kind of put them away and we didn’t, so we need to be better in that area.”
Larkin opened the scoring just 32 seconds into the game to record his fifth goal of the young season.
And with a mere 1:47 on the clock in the opening frame, Smith potted his second of the season to put the Wings up by a pair. Smith blasted a one-timer from the point between the circles and the puck just managed to squeeze through Miller and trickle across the goal line.
Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg assisted on both of the opening-period goals to give him ten points on the season.
Andreas Athanasiou, who was coming off an impressive game in Philadelphia that saw him score a highlight-reel goal and an equally pretty shootout winner, was ruled out after the first period for the remainder of the game with a lower-body injury.
The Wings maintained that 2-0 advantage through the second period, largely thanks to Howard as Detroit was outshot 25-16 after 40 minutes.
But at 3:14 of the third period, the Sedin twins whipped up some magic to pull the Canucks to within one. Sloppy defensive play by the Wings led to a gorgeous give-and-go in front, resulting in a Daniel Sedin goal that Howard had no chance on.
The Red Wings found a way to score that crucial insurance goal late in the third period, something the team did often during its six-game win streak earlier in the season. With the puck at that point, Jonathan Ericsson found Ott in the high slot with a slap pass, and Ott redirected home his first as a member of the Red Wings.
“We need depth of scoring throughout our lineup, we’re not scoring enough right now, we need to score a little bit better, but that’s this league; the league’s hard, it’s hard to score,” Blashill said. “So we’re gonna have to keep grinding and find ways to be as productive as we can. The easier you score, the easier games are, so we’ve got to keep grinding.”
Miller’s last game at The Joe
Thursday night also marked the final game Miller, an East Lansing native, would ever play at Joe Louis Arena, a building he has tended goal in 26 times, dating back to his freshman season at Michigan State in 1999. Unfortunately, this one came during a horrendous stretch where his team dropped ten of its last eleven games.
“It’s great seeing my family and I have a lot of good memories here,” Miller said after the game of playing at The Joe once more albeit in a losing effort.
With the final chapter in the books, Miller finishes with a 14-10-2 all-time – 2-6-1 in the NHL and 12-4-1 with the Spartans. Miller turned away 24 of 27 shots for the Canucks, including a dandy late in the game as he robbed Zetterberg of an empty-netter.
With just under two minutes to play, the Canucks pulled Miller for an extra attacker, down two goals. But as he was on his way to the bench, Miller saw the Red Wings’ captain coming down with the puck off a turnover. Miller raced back to the net and made a seemingly-impossible glove save on Zetterberg’s elevated attempt while diving through the air toward the goal.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 11, 2016
“It was such a quick turnover, I had already started. I was just kind of sick of seeing pucks go in the empty net, so I stopped what I was doing and went back,” Miller said. “I was lucky that he thought he could still beat me by getting over the icing line. It bought be a couple seconds. He shoots it earlier, I’m dead.”
The save earned a standing ovation from the crowd inside The Joe. It’s not often you see that happen for a play by an opponent.
“I guess people remember where I’m from,” Miller said of the ovation.
Blashill, a former goalie himself, said of Miller’s save, “I was hoping he didn’t make it.”
“It was a good save for sure, good athleticism by him for sure. I was hoping it ended up in the net.”