One thing you have to give Mike Ilitch’s teams: they sure know how to blow leads.

The Detroit Red Wings have coughed up so many third-period advantages this season, they are starting to rival the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen.

After coughing up their 11th third-period lead in 31 games this season, you’d almost swear the Wings signed up Tom Gorzelanny and Al Alburquerque to play defense for them this season.

Detroit’s 13-game points streak came to a screeching halt Monday at Joe Louis Arena as the Wings surrendered a pair of goals in the game’s final 4:14 and fell 2-1 to the Buffalo Sabres.

“It’s always a tough loss when you’re up with five minutes left in the game and they score two late in third period,” Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek said. “That shouldn’t happen. But that’s how it is and we cannot change it.”

Actually, changing their penchant for failing to protect leads must be priority No. 1 for the Red Wings.

“It is disappointing to get out of this game with nothing,” Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “We've been playing a little bit sloppier lately, so maybe this was the little wake-up call here.

“We’ve just got to get back to playing the right way for 60 minutes.”

They talked on the weekend about how they’ve been getting away with undisciplined play of late, still grabbing points from games in which they’d squandered late advantages, but it bit them Friday when they let a 2-0 third-period lead escape in a 3-2 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils and Monday, their complete collapse led to no standings points whatsoever for the first time since a 3-1 loss Nov. 14 at Boston.

“Every night is different but we’ve to work on closing out games,” said forward Brad Richards, who scored Detroit’s only goal. “Anything can happen, but two goals in the last five minutes is not how we want to do things.

“It seems like it’s happening a little bit too often, but something we’ve got to learn as a team to go into the third periods, late in the third periods with the lead, we’ve got to close it out and lock it down.

“I’m sure we’re going to talk about that and go over that more this week with some time off here.”

Unable to correct a season-long inability to find insurance goals when they need them, the Wings continue to work with too fine a line in the final frame and end up being punished in the defensive zone for their lack of finish at the other end of the rink.

Detroit coach Jeff Blashill referred to a factor he’s discussed earlier this season, a lack of a killer instinct among his players.

“Yeah, we’ve got to find a way to score the next goal,” Blashill said. “If you score the next goal late in the game there – and we had a power play late – you’ve got to find a way to score the next goal.

“That’s the easiest way to salt away wins. The harder way, which is something we’re going to have to do a better job of obviously, is when you do have a one-goal lead you don’t give up the next goal.

“I just think collectively we’ve got to be better.”

Blashill is also of the belief that the lack of a killer instinct is going hand in hand with the learning curve of some of his younger players who are still being schooled in the methods required to lock down games.

“I think 100 per cent,” Blashill said. “I’ve been asked lots of about it, is it this, is it that? It’s a combination of things. Part of that is confidence. We’ve got to have more poise and confidence in those situations. There’s a difference between confident and too relaxed. You’ve got to be confident but urgent and we’ve got to be better in those situations.

“We’ve got to grow as a team. Which way are we going to go? Are we going to grow or are we going to feel sorry for ourselves? The league doesn’t care about our issues, so we better grow.”

At the same time, Blashill also cautioned his team about letting their third-period woes get inside their heads and affect their psyche as a group when ahead late in tight games. It’s up to them as a team not to permit any sort of mental block to develop.

“I think that’s a decision we have to make every game we play,” Blashill said. “Are we going to let it? There’s no reason to. Every game’s a new game. Things that have happened in the past happened in the past.

“We’ve got to make sure, can we learn things? As soon as I came into the room I said ‘what could we have done different?’ So we look at it as a staff, we look at it as a team and we’ve got to build better and continue to get better going into Friday (against Vancouver).”

Jurco’s Chance
Forward Tomas Jurco failed to convert on a second-period penalty shot with Detroit ahead 1-0 but Blashill wasn’t about to pin the blame for the loss to Jurco’s jersey.

“I don’t know what the percentage is on penalty shots, it’s not extraordinarily high,” Blashill said. “You feel like you should score but that’s not the way it really goes lots of times.

“He did what he could and made the move and it didn’t go in.”

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