In Detroit, the Red Wings had been on a three-game schneid until Alex Nedeljkovic made 33 saves in a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
“The guys were great in front of me, so this was a much easier game than it looks like from the shot totals,” Nedeljkovic said. “They ended up taking a lot of shots from the outside instead of getting right in front of me.”
The Wings improved to 14-12-3.
“I thought we were much better defensively than we had been in the last few games,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We were creating a lot of chances offensively and playing well on the defensive end.”
The Islanders’ Anders Lee scored with just over two minutes left in the third period, with the extra attacker on the ice.
“I think there was just too many lapses in our own end that gave them some opportunities to keep momentum,” Lee said. ” … We ended up chasing for too much of the game tonight. The third period was a lot better, but we’ve got to find a way to be like that all 60 (minutes).”
New York dropped to 7-12-5.
“I thought the first period was pretty even and we were really good for the first eight minutes of the second,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “After that, we failed on a couple exits and had some long shifts back-to-back, so it kind of snowballed on us.”
Dylan Larkin and Michael Rasmussen struck for goals for the Red Wings.
“We had played a great second period and then we made one mistake right at the end,” Blashill said. “Luckily, Alex made the save, because it would have been really tough to give one up in the last few seconds.”
Detroit outshot the Isles 18-9, in the middle frame.
“We could have easily been up by more than one goal after the second period,” Blashill said. “At that point, you don’t want to get frustrated, start forcing things and make a mistake. I think we probably sat back a little too much, but we took advantage of a chance to get that second goal.”
Ilya Sorokin made 37 saves in the Isles loss.
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