Red Wings dash to 6-3 win over Isles

Anthony Mantha #39 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates his goal at 15:15 of the second period against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on December 19, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Red Wings played a determined show of force that led them to a victory at Barclays Arena Tuesday evening. Six different players by Detroit assisted in a massive 6-3 win over the New York Islanders breaking a two game losing streak. It handed New York its third loss at home which handed Detroit netminder Petr Mrazek his first win since Nov. 5

The Red Wings begin a road trip with the hope of success to get away from Detroit. They began things in New York against the Islanders who restarted another homestand where they managed to hold off the Kings 4-3 giving them three straight losses. With nearly the same amount of time off the ice as the Red Wings, they hoped to bring together the consistency and take on Detroit as the only Eastern Conference challenge occurred for them this week.

They accepted the challenge and showed the Red Wings their strength with shots at Mrazek who got his first start in some time. Through seven minutes of play, the Islanders rallied to getting on the puck which they did, turning over the puck on the boards. Captain John Tavares got hold of the puck to find Anders Lee in front of Mrazek. His shot went in on the side of the net to give him his 21^st of the season.

The Red Wings made things happen to level the game at the halfway point. A great puck flip from Dylan Larkin got things started which ended with Martin Frk scoring his first goal in eight games notching his seventh. Though it was their second shot on goal at Islander goaltender Thomas Griess, the effort to compete allowed them chances to turn the game to their advantage.

It came to add more positive progress with a power play that led to team to begin pressuring the Islanders in their zone. With some pucks in front of Greiss, Gustav Nyquist got the honor of scoring his first power play goal and ninth overall. They finished the first period with six shots and held the Islanders to nine.

The second saw New York go back on the man advantage after having their first one killed by Detroit. Just 33 seconds into it, New York tied it back at two all with Ryan Pulock’s unassisted goal for just his second. It opened the shooting spree for his team as they pressured Mrazek heavily with shots to the net where some were barely stopped by the Czech netminder. After eight minutes, New York fired off 14 with Detroit without one.

Detroit had one by the ten-minute mark but it was just a drop in the bucket against the Islanders who continued their onslaught nothing 20 after 14 minutes. The shot resulted in another goal on the power play as second opportunities in front of Mrazek allowing Josh Bailey to score his tenth giving New York back the lead.

Knowing that letting the game get away was not what Detroit wanted and made a big response minutes later. A big steal inside the Islanders zone gave the Red Wings pucks on net to which they scored the tying goal that was credited to Anthony Mantha for his 13^th on the year. Despite being widely outshot in the period, the Red Wings push to stay side by side with the Islanders left the third period to be of great interest.

It was a tight competition that saw the teams very close on shots to the net, making every one of them count. It looked to be a stalemate in the works through a majority of the period. The Red Wings and Islanders pushed their lines to get something happening but the first to break forward was Detroit. A three man play that started with Larkin concluded with a wrister from Trevor Daley that hit top shelf on Griess to make it a 4-3 lead for the Red Wings. Daley gained his second of the year but the margin was still too close for Detroit to feel comfortable. They were well ahead on shots to the net in the period having a sense of control while the clock played to their advantage.

The Red Wings got another step in the right direction with Larkin once again getting the play started. He assisted on Mike Green who had plenty of time with the puck to fire and score his third of the season for a 5-3 lead. Five minutes were left on the clock, but the margin that Detroit held gave them power to stay tight on defense and make the Islanders desperate to change the course of the game. Mrazek and the Detroit defense did work to stop them leading to Griess to come out with 1:45 left.

The Isles took a timeout in an attempt to push the game into the Red Wings zone but failed to be successful. Luke Glendening made them pay the price with an empty net goal for his seventh with 28 seconds to go. It clearly made the Islanders done for the night as they lost their first game when scoring first through 12 games.

The victory for Mrazek was sweet having stopped 34 against New York for a .919 save percentage. Larkin ended the night with 3 assists and a plus two rating. With a full team push on the road, Detroit would love nothing more than to keep things high going into Philadelphia against the Flyers Wednesday.