Tyler Bertuzzi buries a pair to pace the Detroit Red Wings to Victory

It was anything but comfortable last night at Little Ceasars Arena for the Detroit Red Wings, but they found a way to get back into the win column.  On his free bobblehead giveaway night at LCA, Bertuzzi nets a pair including the game-winning goal.

The Detroit Red Wings snapped a three-game skid last evening beating the St. Louis Blues by the score of 4-3.  The Wings came out flying in the first period carrying the majority of the play.  Detroit outshot the Blues to the tune of 15-4 after twenty minutes of play, but the score was 0-0.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Wings skate with confidence to start the game for once.  Quite often the team waits until the second or third period before they decide to wake up and play.  The second period was a strange one — the team despite being outshot 17-10 score three unanswered goals getting out to a nice comfortable lead.

Thomas Vanek opened the scoring with a beautiful pass from Gustav Nyquist.  Gus cruised around the goal and fired a cross-ice pass in front of the Blues goaltender Jake Allen through traffic that found Vanek at the hash-marks.  He buried the short side shot to give the Wings a 1-0 lead.

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Double-A would knock in his 11th goal of the season only about 3 minutes later.  AA has certainly found his way playing on the wing with Frans Neilsen and Gus.  This line is becoming more and more dangerous every night.

It is imperative that they remain an offensive threat because the Dylan Larkin line skates at the top line and often is matched up against the opponents top line.  Some nights points will be hard to come by, but if they can keep the opposition off the scorecard, they have done their job.  This allows this second line to come out and focus on sustaining offensive pressure.

The third line can come out and bang the body and cause havoc and headaches.  Oh, and sometimes like tonight, he can chip in on the scoresheet in a big way.  Tyler Bertuzzi buried not one but a pair of goals including the game winner with about 6minutes remaining in the contest last evening.  He now has 8 goals on the season as he continues to march towards being a third line 20 goal scorer.

Bert is every hockey fan’s dream.  He loves to bang the body and thrives being a torn in the side of everyone he plays against.  He can score, scrap, and muck it up.  Luke Glendening plays as the third line center between Bert and Michael Rasmussen.  It is a line who likes to cycle the puck down low using their size and willingness to wait for an opportunity to drive it to the net and look for a dirty goal.  Rasmussen has 20 goal potential I don’t think it will be this season but he should score into the teens.

The Blues came storming back in the second period converting on back to back power play opportunities cutting the lead to just one.  They would eventually tie the game in the third period after Howard made a sequence of saves during what seemed like a lifetime of Blues offensive zone pressure.  David Perron was lost in coverage, and Brayden Schenn found him all alone at the side of the net, Perron didn’t miss batting the puck into the empty goal.  Howie, immediately seemed to bark in the direction of Jonathan Ericsson as to say that was his missed assignment.

I can’t blame Howie for being upset he was peppered with shots and pressure the entire third period.  The Wings were outshot 15-6 late in the game.  Jimmy Howard stood tall in sort of a bounce-back game after getting the hook after the first period of Monday’s game against Columbus.

The Detroit Red Wings are off until Saturday when they travel to Boston to take on the Bruins and return home Sunday to host the Colorado Avalanche.  A tough stretch of opponents await the Wings; we will see if this team can hang with all of these playoff-bound teams in the coming days.

Notes: Trevor Daley left the game during the first period and did not return.  The Detroit Red Wings dressed seven defensemen, so they were covered that way, but we will have some information on Daley shortly.

Impact Stats;

• Tyler Bertuzzi – 2 Goals (GWG), Plus 2, 16:21 TOI
• Thomas Vanek- 1 Goal, 1 Assist, Plus 2, 11:27 TOI
• Andreas Athanasiou– 1 Goal, 5 Shots, 16:17 TOI
• Mike Green– 2 Assists, Plus 3, 4 Shots, 19:26 TOI
• Jimmy Howard 33 Saves, 3 GA, .917% Save Percentage