Red Wings push Maple Leafs in 3-1 victory

Tomas Tatar #21 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates his third period goal with teammate Gustav Nyquist #14 in front of goaltender Curtis McElhinney #35 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Little Caesars Arena on December 15, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Red Wings brought all their recent successes to formulate a victory at Little Caesars Arena Friday night. Detroit scored three goals on the night to make good on a regulation win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-1 victory. It ended a two-game losing streak with goaltender Jimmy Howard a very strong performance with 27 saves in between the pipes.

While Detroit have themselves on a two-game points streak, getting to points remains the firm mission of the franchise. The Red Wings performance on ice has improved greatly ever since last week’s victory against the Winnipeg Jets. Their last two matches against divisional opponents have shown strength but bad beats in overtime defeats. Their last meeting against the Maple Leafs was one that had Auston Matthews assisting in their defeat but his absence in Detroit gives them a chance to outduel their Original six rivals. It would be the fourth straight game without their top center since his head injury during a game last Saturday.

It didn’t seem to bother them much as Toronto scored immediately after a faceoff in the Detroit zone. It took just two minutes into the game for Andrea Borgman to score on a drive to gain his third of the season. Toronto gained a power play but saw a push from Detroit who went for a shorthanded play but missed. They did work to kill it off and later got their own with Detroit’s top players trying to level the score. They did at one point increase the shots on goal, but as the minutes flew off the clock, Toronto was getting into a groove of firing pucks at Howard in net for the Red Wings. When the first period came to a close, the Maple Leafs managed to take 12 while the Red Wings shot seven.

Toronto got back into motion but had Detroit pacing them well to start the second period. It went on for five minutes with Detroit showing good coverage to takeaway possession and run with it. Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg got a play running with Danny DeKeyser in tow. DeKeyser got tied up with James van Riemsdyk and Borgman but got a shot off that beat Maple Leafs netminder Curtis McElhinney for his first and Zetterberg’s 14^th assist.

A power play helped them pressure the Maple Leafs hunting for the leading goal to take control. Although they didn’t get it, Detroit increased their time with the puck shooting three during the Toronto penalty. They gave Toronto another chance on the power play but their actions were countered by the surging shorthanded tricks of Detroit. For Trevor Daley, it would be his to sink in behind McElhinney scoring his first of the season and first as a member of the Red Wings.

With their mission completed, the Red Wings knew they couldn’t take their foot off the gas and proved it in the last nine minutes with plenty of pucks in the Toronto end to finish the second period strong. They outshot Toronto 13-5 hoping that the third period would produce a big lead than what they had after 40 minutes.

At the four-minute mark, the Red Wings almost had a goal by Andrea Athanasiou but play continued for a time. When officials checked the play, the video showed that the puck hit the post but never went into the net. It was already their fourth shot of the period while Toronto looked for their first. They gained ground on Detroit but as the halfway point came into action, Detroit only made the night harder for Toronto.

Tomas Tatar added a tenth goal to his run with help from Zetterberg who set up the Czech star with a pass right in the Toronto crease to give his team a 3-1 margin. Toronto showed desperate times in their quest to make a comeback but the clock was running against them heavily. They went for the empty net giving them six men but the Red Wings handled business with heavy presence in front of Howard to stop them. It all came together to hand Detroit their first regulation win in over a week and a very big victory for Howard.

The New York goaltender finished with a .962 save percentage and his first win since last week against Winnipeg. With the solid finish from start to finish and the consistency over the last three games, the Red Wings would hope to continue their good run. They’ll try and prove their worth on the road next week with a visit to face the New York Islanders Tuesday.

“It was a big win for the team,” said Daley after the win and earning the first start tonight . “We needed a win tonight. We’ve been playing good hockey lately and the results haven’t been going our way. We knew that good things would happen when were started playing the right way and tonight for most of the game we took a step in the right direction.”