Red Wings blank Blackhawks

Mike Green #25 of the Detroit Red Wings (center) is greeted by Niklas Kronwall #55 and Anthony Mantha #39 of the Detroit Red Wings after scoring a first period goal against the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on January 14, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Detroit made it good to start on time and keep well ahead of their old rivals Sunday afternoon. The Red Wings scored four unanswered on the Chicago Blackhawks that gave goaltender Petr Mrazek his second shutout this season in a 4-0 win at the United Center.

The Red Wings had their best chance to end a two-game slide with the Blackhawks who have surprisingly been struggling this season as well. While they won four of their last five, Chicago has been fighting to stay close to the wild card spot now that the season is beyond the halfway point. Blackhawks netminder Jeff Glass earned his second start since his win against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday. Dominic Turgeon earned his first chance to help the Red Wings after Justin Abdelkader’s injury during Saturday’s loss to the Penguins. He and his team would look forward to seeing positive results in his first NHL game start.

Detroit was first to strike not even five minutes in as Andreas Athanasiou got the puck in position for a scoring chance. He made a good pass through some Chicago legs to position Dylan Larkin at center to one-time the shot and score his seventh. A four on three play at the neutral zone had Detroit moving things very fast that caught the Blackhawks trailing them. It ended with Mike Green scoring on a rifled shot that had him open to aim it at Glass and score just 2:10 later.

With a big lead in favor of their Original Six rivals, the Blackhawks made a slow attempt to speed things up to contend in the period. They had some scoring chances in front of Mrazek in net but his stops and the defense helping kept Chicago scoreless. It was their main agenda that flowed through a majority of the period. It was clear that they slowed down the offense giving Chicago a lot more time with the puck having not shot in 12 minutes. When the period came to an end, they were outshot 10-7 with the chance of turning things around in the second.

Detroit made it their mission to pick up the slack and make the second period theirs to control. They began with a power play 1:15 in but failed to convert on their second chance of the game. They kept up the shots on Glass albeit a small number of them but had longer puck possession. By the halfway point, it was only 4-1 in favor of the Red Wings who were trying to get in front of the Blackhawks net looking to increase their lead.

They had another man advantage on Chicago but despite getting two shots, couldn’t get one by Glass. It helped pick up the pace for them but the difference wasn’t much for the Blackhawks to have trouble dealing with. It turned out it still was as they struggled to make good on setting up scoring chances at Mrazek. They gained a chance to do it with a power play but halfway in, team captain Jonathan Towes took a penalty that negated it.

Detroit finished things with a short power play that saw Gustav Nyquist fighting to find a chance to get one in for himself. Glass closed him off and nearly got caught off the mark when Nyquist’s pass to Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg occurred to get there in time. While he kept out further goal scoring, Glass still found himself in trouble of letting another one in by mistake. When the period finished, the Red Wings showed their speed in the final minutes outshooting the Blackhawks 11-5.

When the third got underway, there were not any shots in the opening minutes of the third period that concerned both benches. The first to act was the Red Wings who started to open fire on Glass once again determined to keep the score in their name. in the fifth minute of play, Detroit got it done with Zetterberg in tow with Anthony Mantha. Mantha was given the pass from behind Zetterberg and nailed it top shelf of the Chicago net to make it 3-0 recording his 15^th on the year.

The Red Wings put the game out of reach for the Blackhawks as Tyler Bertuzzi got himself on the board with seven minutes left in regulation. He gained the rebound from Nick Jensen’s scoring chance that bounced off the pads of Glass to come to the 22-year-old. Opposition from the Blackhawks did not increase into any major threat that saw only time dwindling and defense from the Red Wings staying in formation. The horn came to give them a big win to erase their restart from the break and earn a critical win for their record.

Mrazek made 27 saves against Chicago that gave him a fourth win this season and the first since Dec. 19. While Athanasiou didn’t get a goal on the day, his two assists from start to finish were the foundation of their victory against the Blackhawks. They’ll hope to build another on top of it as they return to Detroit to begin a short two game homestand that will pit them against the Dallas Stars Tuesday.