Red Wings end their woes with big win over Capitals in shootout

Photo by: Dave Reginek/Getty Images

A very important victory finally came to the hands of the Detroit Red Wings on a Saturday afternoon. They brought an end to a five game losing streak getting their revenge against the highly contestive Washington Capitals to beat them in a shootout 3-2 at Joe Louis Arena. A five-round battle ended with captain Henrik Zetterberg getting the game winner that went the distance.

With the Red Wings playoff hopes in serious danger, their five-game losing streak became a massive obstacle that needed to be brought down anyway they could. Doing it against the Capitals would be difficult even with the home advantage in their favor. Detroit had a good one going against them last week when it looked as if they’d bring down the Capitals at Verizon Wireless Arena.

Washington came back with fierce power and won 6-3. Since their last meeting Brayden Holtby has been unstoppable carrying a 14-0-0 in his last 16 games. With injuries riddling Detroit and Gustav Nyquist in the second game of his suspension, the possibility of snapping their losing streak was minimal at best.

Detroit faced adversity right away but goaltender Petr Mrazek made good stops off the blockers before Anthony Mantha took off with the puck. The Red Wings rookie rushed in alone on Holtby but was denied even after Holtby lost his mask during the play. The Red Wings push wasn’t to a level that rivaled Washington who later picked up the pace show dictation in their offense.

The Capitals gave up a power play seven minutes in to the 30^th ranked power play unit. With a good pass play from Zetterberg, he found Frans Nielsen on the left side of the net where his first shot went off the post but a second try went in giving him his 11^th. It was just his second goal in 19 games with the notion that more had to come from him. A hard elbow to the head by Mantha on T.J. Oshie gave Washington a chance to score one with their fourth ranked PP unit.

They took some scoring chances on Mrazek but the Red Wings did work to keep their lead in the game killing off the penalty. On the return to even strength, Detroit’s second line came on with Andreas Athanasiou getting a shot that he barely missed on goal. Despite not able to get another goal for his team, Athanasiou and the Red Wings stepped their game up outshooting Washington 10-9.

The second began with a rollover penalty for Washington due to a face-off violation in the final minute of the first. They took three shots in the Detroit end, but Mrazek kicked out the puck on their chances in the second turning things back to even strength. Detroit worked hard to get some puck time and in the fourth minute a steal in the neutral zone got things started with a 2 on 1. Mantha came in on the stick side of the Capitals zone passing it along to Zetterberg before Tomas Tatar got into position firing the puck through the five hole of Holtby completing the 3 on 2. It was Tatar’s 13^th of the season and great response before the halfway point of the game.

The two-goal lead had Mrazek bringing his defense in goal to another gear where he kept up the blocks off the leg pads that allowed his team to gain control of the puck thereby ending Washington’s run. The Capitals surged ahead on shots to the net gaining momentum but still dealing with the toughness of Mrazek. The Czech came very close to going two periods with a shutout still intact until a mistake by his team changed the pace.

A turnover in the neutral zone got to the stick of Lars Eller who was off sides but had control of the puck before making the pass to Zach Sanford. Sanford pulled back negating the one timer but managed to score on Mrazek for his second of the season and Eller’s tenth. The Capitals carried things into the third with another power play in their hopes to change the pace dramatically.

While the Capitals wanted to get the tying goal early in, they were stopped by the strong Detroit PK unit that denied them for a third time. Detroit wanted nothing more than to increase the goal margin and get a win at home for the first time in a while. They played strong taking four minutes off the clock with an occasional push at Holtby. Tomas Vanek nearly had his team’s third goal but the Capitals netminder made the important save holding Detroit back.

As the period progressed, Washington continued to find chances to level the game with Detroit taking bad penalties in the process. It allowed them to catch a fourth but nothing came over it. At the eight-minute mark, the Red Wings gave another penalty at a critical time where giving anything cheap would change things. Mrazek opened the net during the Capitals fifth man advantage of the game but as he saw the window for Washington, the 25-year got back over just in time to make the save. Justin Williams took the shot only to kill their last scoring chance on the power play.

He didn’t get time to recover as they continued their control on the puck and fired away at the Red Wings netminder who remained tough between the pipes. The pressure became took great for him as another run let Daniel Winnik score on a rebounder that leveled the game with 4:41 left in regulation.

Though the tying goal brought trouble to the scoreboard, the Red Wings weren’t ready to give up giving it all they had left to get one through Holtby and secure a win at home. They had two good chances putting him on check but his saves and the clock running down became a bigger problem. Frustrations also came into play for Detroit as Steve Ott took on Brooks Orpik who got the better of the veteran forward taking many hits on Ott. Despite losing the battle, the teams finished the last minute of play in a stalemate sending the game to 3 on 3 overtime.

Detroit got into serious trouble with a broken stick for one of their players leaving them so vulnerable. As Washington went for a shot, the play was stopped by an amazing save by Mrazek that gave them a chance to reset with everyone carrying a working stick. The puck was moved quite a bit by both teams with each getting their chances to end the game buts both Mrazek and Holtby were clean through the first three minutes.

Detroit had the last 90 seconds with puck control in the Washington zone but couldn’t get the game winner through the former Vezina trophy winner. Holtby did what he could to lock down the net for Detroit pushing the game into a critical shootout where the Red Wings were 6-0 in the final section of the game.

First up for the Red Wings was Tomas Vanek who was best in the situations. With some ease on his shot, Vanek flicked the puck off the stick to get it into the net. Mrazek got a huge save against Oshie allowing Nielsen to take point. He was stopped by Holtby but having the edge was key for them. Evgeny Kuznetsov saved things for the Capitals with a sold goal to level things up. Athanasiou and Backstrom both missed on their shots with the youngster rushing his try and the Washington veteran going five hole.

Things remained even with another pair of shots going unanswered leaving things in the hands of the team leaders. Zetterberg got his chance well as Holtby opened the five whole just enough to score on Holtby leaving Alexander Ovechkin left to save his team from losing. He went in from Mrazek’s right only to miss and give Detroit a massive victory that brought so much relief to them.