Wings earn crucial two points with marathon SO win in Minnesota
Maybe this whole overtime shootout thing isn't such a bad thing after all.
The much-maligned skills competition that cost the Red Wings so many points during the first half of the season paid off with a second massively important point Saturday night, when a video replay overturned both referees who ruled Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk stopped Darren Helm's shot in the eighth round of the overtime shootout.
He didn't. Replays showed the puck was well over the line before Dubnyk kicked it out with his left leg. The result: Detroit ended a three-game losing streak with a critically important victory, 3-2, over the Wild.
How critical? Atlantic Division rivals Boston and Ottawa both win in overtime, too, meaning that the Wings didn't gain any ground in the race to secure a playoff berth.
But they didn't lose any, either. Meantime, their magic number dropped to six. That means any points won by Detroit or lost by Ottawa totaling six will put the Wings in the playoffs for the 24th straight season.
The Wings and Bruins, winners in a shootout over Toronto, are tied with 95 points each. Boston has just three games left in the regular season, while both Detroit and Ottawa have four games remaining. The Senators beat Washington in overtime.
The Capitals visit Joe Louis Arena on Sunday for a 5 p.m. face-off in another massively important game for both teams. Washington is trying to hold onto third place in the Metropolitan Division, much the same as Detroit is clinging to third in the Atlantic.
"A big two points, obviously," Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "All the teams around us won, too, but all we can do is focus on ourselves and play good hockey."
Riley Sheahan scored his 13th and Gus Nyquist added his 26th on a power play for the Detroit goals.
Helm's penalty-shot goal made a hero of Jimmy Howard. Snake-bit in shootouts for much of the season, Howard won for the second straight time in the shootout after losing his first eight. He made 22 saves in regulation.
Zach Parise scored both Minnesota goals, giving him 32 for the season.
"I think it's huge," said Howard after one of his strongest outings since returning from a groin injury.
He was starting for the first time in five games, but emphasized that there was plenty of credit to go around for this victory.
"Tonight, everyone chipped in," he said. "It just wasn't one guy out there. But it felt good. I just went out there and I had fun. I enjoyed myself.
"I was just happy to be back out there competing for the guys because that's where I love to be."
Heading into the weekend, coach Mike Babcock said that Petr Mrazek would start Sunday against Washington because of the back-to-back games. But he was heartened by Howard's performance, especially in the shootout when he turned away six of eight shots, while Nyquist, Sheahan and Helm scored at the other end.
"Howie is trying to get his confidence back like anyone else who hasn't played much lately," Babcock said. "And tonight the way it finished in the shootout for him and the way he made some key saves for us (through overtime), it's got to be a huge confidence-booster."
Just another night at the office, Howard said.
"It wasn't really all that stressful," he said when asked about the overtime, with so much riding on that additional point up for grabs. "You're just in the moment, playing, trying to make one more save than the guy at the other end."
Howard did that, and the Wings brought home the added satisfaction of having played a second straight solid game.
Team defense was good, limiting the opponent to barely a handful of scoring chances. Penalty killers were outstanding again, though one of Parise's goals came on the power play. And Detroit's power play, which has struggled for the past month, got the Wings on the board with Nyquist's 14th this season, with the extra man.
There remain some areas of concern, however. For the second straight game, the Wings took an ill-timed penalty for having too many men on the ice. This is on the coaches, and they have to get that figured out fast.
"We're finding a way to be in the box too much," Zetterberg said. "We have to be a little more disciplined. The guys are finding a way to kill them off, but in the long run, we have to be more disciplined."
