The Wings were on the road Thursday night to face the Phoenix Coyotes, a team that actually shipped several veteran players out during deadline day. They didn’t miss them though, as the desert dwellers rode a lopsided second period to a 4-2 victory over the Red Wings a Jobing.com Arena.

Apr. 4, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA; Phoenix Coyotes right wing Mikkel Boedker (89) checks Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith (2) during the first period at Jobing.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

It didn’t start out so depressing for the visitors, who took an early 1-0 lead. Sent on the power play just 54 seconds after the puck dropped, the Red Wings were able to work the puck into the slot for Gustav Nyquist, and his deflected shot found its way onto the stick of Valtteri Filppula. The winger’s backhand found a wide open net for his first goal since March 15.

The Red Wings took that lead into the first intermission, but the second stanza looked like a completely different game. An innocent looking point shot by Michael Stone found its way past Jimmy Howard 1:47 in, and former Detroit grinder Chris Conner finished off a two-on-one with Mikkel Boedker at the 8:08 mark.

In a period full of breakdowns and mental lapses by the Wings, the worst came with just under four minutes to play. A bad line change combined with some blown coverage to free Shane Doan up right in front of the net, and he easily converted his 12th goal of the season. Phoenix outshot Detroit by an astonishing 20-5 for the period.

A relatively uneventful third frame offered some late drama courtesy of the ever popular delay of game call. Boedker put the puck into the stands with 1:23 left, and with Howard pulled, Daniel Cleary deflected in a shot from a sharp angle to cut the lead to 3-2. But there was to be no late game heroics from Henrik Zetterberg and company, as Martin Hanzal sealed up the win with an empty netter in the final second.

Despite no looking his sharpest, Howard made 34 saves on 37 shots and couldn’t do much about two of the three goals he allowed. The defensive hijinks make it natural to wonder if highly touted college free agent signing Danny Dekeyser will see his first action of the season Friday at Colorado.

Chad Johnson got the win for Phoenix, playing in only his third game of 2013. He got the start for an ill Jason LaBarbera and stopped 34 of the 36 shots he faced.

The Red Wings remain in seventh place in the Western Conference following the loss, but the Coyotes helped themselves pull within two points of eighth in a playoff race that has only eliminated three teams. The moves Detroit didn’t make on Wednesday had more to do with the future than this year, but there’s still the matter of that NHL-best postseason streak, and games like this one are bound to make fans nervous as the season enters the stretch run.

The game was over when…

It didn’t end after 20 minutes. The Wings came out with surprising jump and looked good in the first period, getting most of the chances and passing the puck well on the power play. You got the feeling that they should have had more than a one-goal lead to show for it, though, and that indeed turned out to be the case when the wheels came off in the second.

The unsung Red Wings hero was…

Depressing losses always make me want to not hand it out at all, but let’s go with Nyquist here. He was one of the biggest reasons the power play looked so threatening early on, and he and Pavel Datsyuk were pretty much the only skaters making anything positive happen after the game started heading south.

April 1, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Red Wings center Damien Brunner (24) receives congratulations from center Gustav Nyquist(14) after scoring in the second period against the Colorado Avalanche at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

After that steaming pile of s…erious loss the Red Wings put down on Sunday against the Blackhawks, they needed to storm in Monday and make an example of the last place Avalanche. They needed to show the league that no matter how many Jay Bouwmeesters, Jarome Iginlas, and Robyn Regehrs get moved to strong teams, they are still a force to be reckoned with, and can carry good play through the rest of the season and the playoffs.

Did they do that tonight? No. That would be impossible. But it was a good start.

The game started off at a nice pace with some solid, neutral-zone centric back-and-forth hockey. Both teams were playing well, and everyone was doing their jobs. Jordin Tootoo laid a nice couple of hits in the early minutes of the tilt (including a monster on former teammate Greg Zanon), and Detroit eventually built on that competitive drive to score in the last five minutes of the period, courtesy of Justin Abdelkader knocking a puck out of the air and into the Avalanche net. He’s one goal away from matching his career high, and I  think he may very well be a top six forward. Maybe. I’d like to see more in the assist column before I decide for sure, but hey, my recent NHL 13 season saw Damien Brunner scoring 33 goals with only 7 helpers, so I guess Abdelkader can have the benefit of video game logic for the remainder of the season.

The second period played host to some more fantastic hockey, this time courtesy only of your hometown Wings. Detroit drove possession all period, and continued to make up for their atrocious powerplay early in the season by scoring on the man-advantage. Johan Franzen fed a nice pass to Dan Cleary who was wide open in the crease, and tapped the puck in to double his team’s lead. It originally looked as though Damien Brunner may have gotten the goal, as he took a whack at Franzen’s pass that just skirted over the puck. His time would come just over three minutes later, however, as he was on the receiving end of a beautiful, maybe even Datsyukian, play from Gustav Nyquist and one-timed a shot past Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov to make the score 3-0 and chase Varlamov from the net. It was Brunner’s 11th goal of the season and his first in fifteen games.

Sadly, Detroit lost some intensity after Brunner’s goal, and it was only the amazing play of Jimmy Howard that kept the score 3-0 going into the third period. Eventually, however, Colorado was able to take advantage of Detroit’s lackluster defense on a powerplay – Jamie McGinn knocked  a loose rebound past Jimmy Howard 5:52 into the period to make it 3-1. You would think Detroit would take this as a wake-up call, but they continued to play passive offensively and porous defensively, causing a goal by Matt Duchene off an awful Brendan Smith turnover to half the Wings’ lead. Again, the fantastic play of Howard – namely an amazing glove save with only 7 seconds left – was the only thing preventing the Wings from returning to the days of turning leads into losses.

This win puts Detroit five points ahead of 9th place St. Louis, although that could change with the Blues’ recent acquisitions. Altogether I think the Wings’ playoff aspirations look pretty good, especially with their schedule over the next couple of weeks.

Notes:

- Nyquist needs to play like this every night. He keeps showing glimpses of his potential – if he reaches his ceiling, he’ll be a good 1st line winger capable of 70-80 points per season and solid defensively. Sound familiar?

- Jay Bouwmeester for a low 1st round pick and two prospects. Jay Feaster is one of the most incompetent GMs in recent history. Wow. Maybe we can pry Sven Baertschi or Mark Giordano from him for Filppula or White.

- Speaking of White, it wouldn’t be out of the question to get a 1st round pick for him. A contending team with better forwards than defensemen (Montreal and Ottawa come to mind) could really use a guy like him. Or him and Filppula could be put together for a guy like Keith Yandle. Actually, I like that idea a lot. White, Filppula, and a 2nd round pick for Keith Yandle. Or add another first for Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Next Lidstrom right there.

- Getting Helm back will be huge. HUGE. Put him in the mix and the Wings are suddenly elite again. I miss that guy a lot.

As always, thanks for reading! Follow me on twitter: @dzkefalas. I’m annoying and I tweet a lot, but I’m funny sometimes, promise.