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| Henrik Zetterberg #40 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates his third period goal with teammate Tyler Bertuzzi #59 during an NHL game against the New York Rangers at Little Caesars Arena on December 29, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images) |
The Red Wings pulled a much-deserved win ending their overtime woes at Little Caesars Arena Friday night. While there was friendly banter between some members of each team, Detroit came out victorious ending a bad run in overtime to defeat the New York Rangers in a shootout winning 3-2. Jimmy Howard shut the Rangers out in net during the 3 frames to earn a big win to snap a two-game slide. Frans Nielsen was responsible scoring his 47th goal in the shootout with his experience paying off.
With just one game to go before the Winter Classic, the Rangers would have a lot to fight for in support of Henrik Lundqvist. The Swede goaltender was just one game behind NHL legend Tony Esposito for eighth on the all-time winningest goaltenders. A win would give him 423 wins and would beat Esposito by 112 Games to reach that mark. The Red Wings found themselves on another losing streak and hoped to keep it short with a victory at home. They began a two game homestand to conclude 2017 with an Original Six matchup and Jimmy Howard once again taking position between the pipes.
He watched his team work Lundqvist early on with Gustav Nyquist launching the first shot at him. The Rangers netminder made the stop on his Swedish countryman and continued dealing with the Detroit offense swarming around him. It wasn’t until the seventh minute that New York recorded a shot on Howard who made the five hole save.
They got on to creating pucks in the Detroit end to match that of the Red Wings who used a power play only to lose out on the opportunity. As the number one team with the most shorthanded goals, they tried getting one on the Rangers who were lucky enough to stop them. They went back at pressuring Detroit in the late stages with one going in at 17:35. With a lot of ground in front of Howard, the Rangers took the lead with Jimmy Vesey setting up David Desharnais for a one timer that gave him his fourth of the season. When the first came to a close, New York shot the last eight pucks indicating their dominance in the final minutes.
The Rangers picked up where they left off attacking Howard and the Red Wings looking to get a leg up on the scoreboard. Detroit’s defense came in and helped clear away their scoring chances while looking to create any sudden chances they could. One came eight minutes in with a long stretch pass bouncer from Dylan Larkin that Andreas Athanasiou got to in time. The quick forward got in front of Rangers defenseman Nick Holden to get the blade on the puck and swing the puck high to hit top shelf for his sixth tying the game.
He tried four minutes later to get a second one on Lundqvist but the veteran goalie had his focus on the puck to make the big stop of the 23-year-old. His actions saw the rest of the squad get in on firing pucks at Lundqvist recording eight in the second period. Six minutes were left with both teams even on shots on goal with Detroit still adamant about taking over control of the game while they created opportunities.
With 3:25 left on the clock, the Red Wings gained a power play to get an edge on controlling the puck. In response right off the opening faceoff, New York was quickly on the puck in their attempt to kill time off the penalty. They did the job knocking out Detroit’s third of the game and brought the period to a close. While they were outshot 11-9 to Detroit, the third would determine a lot as both teams were full speed with the game even.
The Rangers got the jump on Detroit in the third period making it count just 2:34 in. With plenty of push into the Detroit zone, the Rangers scored with Vinni Letteri in his first NHL game scoring his first career goal with Boo Nieves making the assist for the 22-year-old who had his family in attendance. The offense only got heavier for New York as they were all over Howard who struggled to make the stops against them. Detroit somehow turned the game to run their way soon after. At 12:55, Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg scored on Lundqvist with a second chance shot that gave him his sixth. The goal came with a strong defensive play by Gustav Nyquist who kept the puck in the offensive zone for Zetterberg to gain possession.
With the game tied, the Rangers went with a strategy to surge on shots at Howard to get out front with time on the clock and pressure Detroit heavily. They had scoring chances but none found a good way of getting into the net behind the Red Wings netminder. The Rangers had Detroit outshot but a power play in favor of the home team allowed them one chance of scoring the game winner. New York successfully killed of the penalty but soon went back a man down to hand the Red Wings another opportunity with 1:20 left in the game.
A shot that got behind Lundqvist almost gave the Red Wings the lead but a save by Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh allowed him to sweep the puck away from the crease. There was still time on the man advantage for them but it became clear that despite the very close chance, the teams would go into overtime with Detroit having 40 seconds up 4 on 3. New York outshot Detroit 18-11 in the period but with just five minutes of play left, it would be up to them to keep their consistency alive.
The Rangers killed off a fifth power play and continued playing 4 on4 before Lundqvist helped reset the playing field to 3 on 3. A huge chance for New York came on a penalty shot for Brady Skjei who was stopped by Howard on the pads. The final two minutes of overtime were very tense for both goaltenders in the net but a winner was not decided leaving a shootout to take care of things.
Nielsen got it going with a five-hole shot on Lundqvist while Howard stopped Matts Zuccarello. Nyquist continued to be stopped by Lundqvist losing out on his chance while Mika Zabinejad flowed well to cut him off. Zetterberg almost had another fake working against his good friend in net for New York but went wide on the shot. A final stop of Kevin Shattenkirk gave the Red Wings a very well-deserved win that ended their 0-6 overtime record.
“I actually think it was my first on him,” said Nielsen when asked about his shootout attempt. “I watched Gus [Nyquist] when he came in on him, we were looking at that one a bit to find some holes so I saw him open on his five hole and that’s what I tried to do.” “Getting the win means a lot,” he told Fox Sports Detroit reporter Trevor Thompson. “It’s been tough lately. We feel we deserve better than what we’re getting and we have to put in a good streak to get back in it.”
They will try to do so on New Year’s Eve when they face the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
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