Detroit Red Wings: The comeback kids were at it again

With a poor performance by Jimmy Howard, the Detroit Red Wings were forced to once again claw back from a multiple-goal deficit.  This time the Wings were down 4-1 going into the third period.

It’s a trend that teams don’t exactly try to emulate, falling well behind before entering the third period but that’s exactly what the Detroit Red Wings have done in two of their past three games.  Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia the Wings found themselves down 5-1 early in the third period.

Tonight was much of the same for the Wings trailing 4-1 early in the second period.  Jimmy Howard allowed 4 goals on only 8 shots before he once again gave way to Jonathan Bernier.  Howard has gotten the hook in both of his last two starts.  That will hurt his trade stock, there is never a “good” time to slump but when you’ve been rumored in trade talks as the deadline approaches is the less than ideal time to struggle.

Although the Wings found themselves well behind to start the third period, they began to chip away.  The top line of Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi were fantastic tonight for the Wings.  It seemed every time they were on the ice they had a scoring opportunity.

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The Detroit Red Wings dominated the shots to the tune of 35-20 over the Hawks, but as proven tonight the Hawks don’t need too many shots to score.  Patrick Kane extended his point streak to 19 games.  He scored twice including the overtime winner.

Although he was able to extend his point streak, his assist streak ends tonight at 17 games.  He had the “great one” Wayne Gretzky in his sights but fell a little short.  Wayne has the record (surprise, surprise) at 23 consecutive games recording an assist.

Patrick Kane is having an MVP type season; the 30-year-old now has 38 goals, 54 assists totaling 92 points on the season.

Back to that top line for the Detroit Red Wings, Anthony Mantha finished the night with 4 assists.  Dylan Larkin recorded 2 goals and added an assist enjoying a 3 point night. Although Bertuzzi didn’t register a point he had 5 shots on goal, he rang the goal post and was a pest every opportunity available.  Andreas Athanasiou also scored a pair of goals for the Wings.

Get this; the Detroit Red Wings top line recorded 21 shots on goal tonight; the Blackhawks entire team totaled 20 shots.  That’s how good that group was.  Andreas Athanasiou scored his first goal on a Red Wings power play.  It was a SportsCenter top 10 type of goal.

Anthony Mantha started the play with a hard slap-pass from the slot that couldn’t be controlled by the Wings at the side of the net.  Andreas Athanasiou found the puck at the opposite side moments later.  He flattened the puck on the blade of his stick and bounced it off the back of Hawks goaltender Cam Ward‘s head and into the net.  It was a thing of beauty, sort of picture something you would see in a lacrosse game.

The poor performance from Howard hampered the team early, but they once again show us, you are never really out of it in today’s NHL.  The Wings would eventually fall the Blackhawks in overtime 5-4.  It was an exciting game, but the “lose for Hughes” chant lives on.  The Wings are back at it from LCA Friday night when they host the New Jersey Devils.