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Tatar meets Harry Potter, then he pots winner |
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First Tomas Tatar met Harry Potter.
Then he finally potted one.
Tatar’s goal with 2:50 left in regulation time gave the Detroit Red Wings a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres Saturday afternoon at HSBC Arena, ending Detroit’s season-long three-game losing streak.
The tally was not only a winner, it halted an eight-game goalless skid for Tatar, who led the Wings last season with 29 goals.
“It’s a good feeling,” Tatar said. “When you’re on a stretch and the puck won’t go in you obviously think about it, but there’s not really much you can do about it.
“You are getting your chances, you just can’t score a goal. Now hopefully the confidence is back on the stick and you can maybe hold on for a second and just do the right thing.”
Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg, who also scored to end a personal six-game drought, wasn’t concerned that Tatar’s touch would return.
“It’s always nice to see guys score who haven’t scored in a while,” Zetterberg said. “I’m not worried about him, though. He’s a hard worker and does everything right.
“But it’s nice to see him score again.”
Perhaps it was a little bit of healing magic from Harry Potter that fixed what ailed Tatar. After Detroit’s New Year’s Eve home-ice loss to Pittsburgh, Tatar met Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who portrayed Harry Potter, in the Red Wings dressing room.
Radcliffe’s girlfriend, actor Erin Darke, is a Michigander who got her college degree from the University of Michigan’s Flint campus.
“I think his girlfriend is from somewhere in the Flint area so I guess he decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Detroit,” Tatar explained. “It’s nice that he’s a Red Wings fan, obviously. That’s a huge name to have behind us.
“I was watching his movies, too, so it was great to meet him.”
Tatar sheepishly admitted he wasn’t a big fan of the films.
“It’s not like I was crazy about it but it was a great movie,” Tatar said. “Hands down he did a great job there and I think the whole movie is really famous. Everybody in the world I think knows who was Harry Potter.”
Mrazek’s The Man
Making his fifth start in seven games and appearing in his seventh consecutive game, Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek made a huge breakaway stop on a breakaway by Buffalo defenseman Zach Bogosian in the final minute of regulation time.
“He got the speed,” Mrazek said of Bogosian. “I tried to stay patient in the blue zone because when the guy has speed he can go around you, make a move.
“I just tried to stay big and it hit my shoulder.”
While on the ice and on paper it certainly appears that Mrazek is making his case to be Detroit’s No. 1 goalie after rotating with Jimmy Howard since the start of the season, no one is willing to go there on the record just yet.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Mrazek said. “The season is long. We have lots of games left.
“I’m trying to work hard on the ice every day, just be big in the net and try to make some saves.”
Mrazek did acknowledge that getting into the net for such a stretch of games as he has lately makes finding consistency an easier task.
“It helps the goaltender,” Mrazek said. “You want to play lots of games, just to get confident and you get experience.”
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill also wasn’t ready to make any proclamations regarding his netminders.
“We look at things day to day so I’ll look at come (Monday’s game at New) Jersey who is going to start there but what Petr did tonight was to make a big save at a big moment to ensure the win,” Blashill said. “That’s something he’s done throughout his career. He’s got an ability to seize the moment. Not that Jimmy doesn’t. Jimmy does as well but Petr has done it well throughout his career.
“That’s something I think he’s real good at. He’s played pretty good hockey overall so we’ll continue to evaluate.”
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