Jimmy Howard’s first victory of the season was a key to Detroit’s win at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. Goals from Tomas Vanek and Drew Miller allowed the Red Wings to beat the New York Rangers 2-1 for their second win in a row. The Detroit goaltender made 32 saves on the night including an incredible performance in the second period.
Monday’s home victory for the Red Wings got them in shape to be consistent as they got back on the road. With Mike Green scoring a hat trick along with Darren Helm’s two goals, the remainder of Detroit’s lineup hoped to bring the heat against their Original Six rivals. For the first time this season, Howard got the start ending Mrazek’s three-game streak for the Red Wings. The veteran net minder had put in plenty of practice during the preseason and expected to do better than Henrik Lundqvist in net for the Rangers.
Howard was immediately challenged in the opening minutes where Kris Kreider helped out the Rangers keeping the play alive. He found Ryan McDonagh near the blue line firing a shot on the net where Mika Zabinejad stood to get the rebound scoring his second of the season. Being in a whole was not what the Red Wings wanted and they responded by bring an even keel to their offense taking their scoring chances on Lundqvist.
The Swedish goaltender did plenty of work to avoid a sudden tie with Detroit which led to a struggle for the Red Wings. New York’s win on the face-offs were taking their toll winning 73 percent. New York put worry into the eyes of Detroit’s defense as they nearly had two more unanswered goals in net. A shot from the Rangers line went off the post and later took another close shot that went off the opposite post. By the time the horn sounded, the Rangers had outshot the Red Wings 14-7 with plenty of time to continue their early success.
The Red Wings earned a power play to start the second but got into trouble fast. Michael Grabner caught hold of the puck in the neutral zone going on a breakaway at Howard while shorthanded. Grabner rushed the puck to the Detroit goalie but failed to get it behind him. They continued their rush on Howard with Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and McDonagh getting a run ahead of the Red Wings but couldn’t get the puck behind the Detroit goaltender.
To give their teammate a break, the Red Wings pulled things together on offense with Vanek putting a screen in front of Lundqvist. It allowed Frans Nielsen to aim a shot from the blue line watching it go into the net that leveled the score. Vanek got a piece of the puck on its way in giving the Austrian his third of the season.
The Rangers made it their mission to get back out front by any means. For the rest of the period, they took everything they had at Howard but came up empty. Through the last 14 minutes, the Detroit net minder used his newfound energy to making big saves on shots from point-blank range to deep in the Detroit zone. By the time the period had come to a close, Howard made 13 saves in what was a great performance on his part and just another reason for the Red Wings to keep getting better.
Miller got the message just one minute into the third period where the Detroit veteran got an easy pass from Luke Glendening to score his first of the season. Glendening went after Lundqvist in the back of the net leaving it vulnerable for Miller to shoot on it. They used the lead to increase their shots on net in the Rangers zone while New York looked for their first of the period. They got the chance with a power play but watched at the Red Wings launched into shorthanded breakaways. It was enough time with the puck that killed off the penalty bringing things to status quo.
Time was quickly falling off the clock with Howard still at his best hoping to get the win at the end of regulation. Efforts from the rest of his team did everything they could to play man to man coverage and fight for possession at every opportunity. Two minutes were left on the clock for the Rangers who decided to pull Lundqvist from the net. Six men went at the Red Wings in their attempts to score the tying goal.
New York head coach Alain Vigneault took a timeout with 44.5 seconds left hoping that his setup would help send things into overtime. The strategy didn’t work out for them as their final shots were all blocked off giving Detroit another big victory. For Howard, getting the first win was very important for the 32-year-old as he accumulated for a .969 save percentage and plenty more to come this season. “I just enjoy playing here,” Howard said when asked about his success at MSG.
They’ll take the much-deserved win before returning home to begin a three-game home stand that begins with the Nashville Predators Friday night.
Photo by: Jared Sllber/Getty Images
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