Red Wings look to keep rolling against Coyotes Thursday
The Detroit Red Wings continue to give up tying goals in the third period. That hasn't prevented them from maintaining their point streak that's stretched into a third week.
The Wings look to keep rolling as they face an Arizona Coyotes team coming off an ugly loss Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena (7 p.m. pregame, 7:30 face-off on FOX Sports Detroit).
Detroit (13-8-4) allowed an equalizer in the third for the fifth straight game and then fell behind by one against Buffalo on Tuesday, but Justin Abdelkader's power-play goal with 6:29 left forced overtime. Brad Richards then scored the only goal of the shootout to lift the Wings to a 5-4 victory, giving them a 5-0-3 mark since Nov. 16.
"As much as you don't want to give up leads, and mistakes happen, we're getting points and that's very good," said left wing Drew Miller, who had a goal and an assist. "You look at the end of the year, you don't want to miss (the) playoffs by one or two points. You look back now and you're getting one or two points losses but you're getting the one point that helps a lot down the line.
"So I thought tonight we had a good character win. Finding a way to win is big in this league, so I think we're learning that and that's big for our team."
All eight games during the point streak have been decided by one goal.
Detroit outshot Buffalo 32-14 over the second and third periods and 46-32 for the game. The total for the game was the Wings' highest since they recorded 47 on Nov. 21, 2013.
Abdelkader snapped a seven-game goal drought with two goals and an assist and completed a "Gordie Howe hat trick" by fighting Josh Gorges in the second period.
Tomas Tatar scored and has six goals and three assists in his last 10 games, while Gustav Nyquist notched two assists to give him four points in the past three.
Arizona (13-10-1) had its three-game winning streak end in disheartening fashion Tuesday in a 5-2 loss at Nashville. The Coyotes came in 10-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes, but allowed four unanswered goals in the third.
The Predators held a 41-15 advantage in shots. Arizona's minus-3.92 shot differential is among the worst in the league.
"Going into the third we knew we were fortunate to be up by one, and that goes in big part to Smitty (goaltender Mike Smith)," center Kyle Chipchura told the team's official website. "We had belief we could hold on, but you can't keep (getting outshot) every night. It's eventually going to catch up with you."
Sloppy play and turnovers also plagued the Coyotes, who are enjoying a resurgent season but have suffered through some growing pains with their young players.
"You can't turn the puck over like that and expect to win games," coach Dave Tippett said. "(Our) puck play was poor, to say the least. (Smith) kept us in it for a long time, but you can't keep giving them Grade A chances off turnovers like that and expect to win."
Tippett's team also needs to be better on the penalty kill as it's allowed at least one power-play goal in the past four games, with opponents going 5 for 14.
Rookie Max Domi has five assists in a four-game point streak, while defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored his fifth goal in the past nine contests.
Arizona has been surprisingly successful in this series of late, winning three of the past four meetings with Detroit and five of eight. The Coyotes took the last matchup 5-4 at Joe Louis on March 24.
