DETROIT -- Don't make the Red Wings angry. You won't like them when they're angry.
Well, Wings fans probably liked it a lot.
After scoring just six goals in six winless games, the Wings (18-8-9) broke out in a big way with a 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres (13-19-3) at Joe Louis Arena Tuesday night.
"We didn't give up much, but we made some big mistakes early," Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "They capitalized on our mistakes, but then we dug in, really got pissed off and dug in. I thought we had great leadership and I thought our specialty teams worked. And we just stuck with it and found a way to get a win which is a real positive.
"We needed a win."
The Sabres scored their first goal when the puck bounced off of forward Nicolas Deslauriers' chest past goaltender Petr Mrazek, who started in place of the injured Jimmy Howard.
Buffalo had a 2-1 lead after one period, which became 3-1 when a blocked shot led to a shorthanded goal by Andre Benoit, his first goal of the season.
"We played good but unfortunately we had some bad turnovers and it seemed like they scored on all of them," Johan Franzen said. "Kind of a tough start. We played OK but it's not fun being down 3-1. But I think everyone after two periods, everyone got a little pissed off and it showed out there. We really got going in the third so we got things done."
Danny DeKeyser scored late in the second to cut the lead to 3-2 but the Wings got some help from the Sabres in the third.
After captain Henrik Zetterberg scored to tie the game at 4:19 of the third, the Sabres then proceeded to take three penalties.
The Wings scored on all three, two by Tomas Tatar and one by Johan Franzen.
"They just took it to us in the third period," Sabres goaltender Michal Neuvirth said. "Their power play was unbelievable. I had no idea what was going on out there. Three, four goals I didn't even see the shooter."
Said Sabres coach Ted Nolan: "Playing a good team, you have to play smart with a two goal lead. We took a stupid penalty and the rest is history."
The four power-play goals are a season high and give the Wings a league-leading 32.
The Wings' power play moved up from seventh (22 percent) to fourth (24.1 percent) because of it.
"To be honest, I tried to overshoot the puck the whole game," Tatar said. "I'm really happy the one went in and then the other one. That's the thing, when the puck won't find the net, you have to overshoot it and keep shooting and hopefully some pucks find the way. That's what happened."
On Franzen's power-play goal, Neuvirth made one spectacular save, Franzen got the rebound and hit the post and then finally got the puck back and didn't miss on his third chance.
"It's been a long time coming so it was good to finally get one," said Franzen, who hadn't scored since Nov. 20 at Winnipeg. "We had tons of opportunities but by the end, the pucks went in for us."
Zetterberg credited the Wings' resilience with the victory.
"I think we just stuck with it," Zetterberg said. "I think the first period we had 15 shots but maybe we weren't there for second chances. In the second period we were a little bit better, a little stronger, a little heavier on the puck than them. In the third, we kept going the same way. The power play was huge. But we felt we had momentum from the second period, and the chances they had, Petr was good in net and made some saves.
"Christmas is going to be a lot nicer now."
