Riley Sheahan had a goal and an assist, and the Detroit Red Wings held on for a desperately needed 3-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Joe Louis Arena on Friday. The Red Wings tied the Philadelphia Flyers, who have two games in hand, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and remain one point behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division.
Minnesota are five points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference; the Avalanche have one game in hand. The Wild trail the Nashville Predators by four points for the first wild card. Dylan Larkin and Tomas Tatar scored for Detroit. Jimmy Howard made 20 saves.
Jonas Brodin and Granlund scored for Minnesota. Zach Parise and Ryan Suter each had two assists, and Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves. Granlund made it 3-2 at 9:43 of the third period. He beat Howard with a wrist shot from the right circle for his 12th goal.
Larkin's power-play goal gave Detroit a 1-0 lead with 7:08 left in the first period. His shot from the right circle deflected off the shaft of the stick of Suter and fluttered over the left shoulder of Dubnyk and into the net. It was Larkin's 23rd goal and gave him 45 points, the most for a Red Wings rookie since Nicklas Lidstrom had 60 in 1991-92.
Tatar made it 2-0 Detroit 2:32 into the second period. He beat Dubnyk on the short side with a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle at a bad angle after a no-look pass from Nyquist. It was Tatar's 21st goal. Brodin made it 2-1 with 3:18 left in the second. He beat Howard with a one-time slap shot from the right point just inside the blue line. It was Brodin's second goal.
Sheahan, who was originally credited with Larkin's goal, scored 2:08 into the third when he put in a rebound to make it 3-1. It was Sheahan's 13th goal and fourth in five games. He has two assists in that span. Jared Spurgeon didn't play because of a lower-body injury and forward Tomas Vanek returned after missing a game with an upper-body injury.
Wild Quotes
Mikael Granlund: “They got the huge two points and we didn't. Now we go to Winnipeg (Sunday) and see what happens then. I think until they scored their second goal, we were not playing our game and then we started to play or game.”Charlie Coyle: “Obviously, you don't get the result you wanted, you can't say you played well. They had good puck support and had a lot of time playing in our zone.”
Other Results
Washington @ Colorado 4-2
Vancouver @ Anaheim 3-2
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