First, Buffalo Sabres forward Marcus Foligno high-sticked Dylan Larkin.
Then Larkin stuck it to the Sabres.
Just a few minutes after he chewed on Foligno’s composite twig, Larkin snapped a scoreless tie at 12:01 of the third period, sparking the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-0 victory over the Sabres Friday, ending Detroit’s two-game losing streak.
“Yeah, I guess that kind of woke me up a little bit,… Larkin said. “Kind of ticked me off a little bit so I was playing with some edge.…
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill noticed Larkin take things up another notch after he caught Foligno’s high stick.
“Larks has got that competitive spirit for sure,… Blashill said. “Not that he wasn't good early, but I did think his best was the last half of the third period there.
“He's certainly got the ability in games to turn it on, to bring it up to another level.…
Blashill was even more pleased with the way his whole team responded following tough home-ice losses to Philadelphia and St. Louis.
“To be honest with you, I just thought it was a very, very good complete team effort,… Blashill said. “I rolled all four lines. We didn't worry about who they were matched up against because I felt real comfortable playing all four lines.
“I thought it was a real good team win.…
Passing Fancy While it was Larkin’s goal that gave Detroit the lead, it was his pass to set up Henrik Zetterberg’s tally that made it 2-0 that really left everyone speechless.
Picking up the puck in the Buffalo zone, Larkin wheeled back toward the blue-line, mesmerizing all five Sabres and allowing Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg to sneak in behind them and score off Larkin’s feed.
“He comes through in big moments for us, so I don’t think it surprised anyone,… Detroit center Riley Sheahan said of Larkin’s vision to find Zetterberg. “He goes to those hard areas and he’s getting rewarded for it.
“I think he’s getting more respect out there, so guys have got to be honest with him.…
Nothing Larkin does on the ice is a shock to Zetterberg.
“No, he just keeps going, keeps going, and he’s a good player,… Zetterberg said. “He works hard. You saw his skill set tonight on my goal. A very nice pass through everyone to the back door.…
Larkin was amazed that all the Sabres were so fixated on him.
“I saw it all,… Larkin said. “I saw him sneak back in there.
“I think everybody in the rink except those five guys knew he was wide open.…
Petr Perfect Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek made 19 saves for his third shutout of the season and eighth of his NHL career.
“I said it before, I think the most consistently thing we have this year is our goaltending,… Zetterberg said. “Both Howie (Jimmy Howard) and Petr’s been tremendous and once again Petr tonight comes in and plays with such a calmness.
“It’s easy for us to play. He’s really good at playing the puck and giving the first pass to our D.
“It makes it a lot easier.…
No Worries The Wings, who’ve struggled to score this season, didn’t panic when it was 0-0 after two periods, even though Detroit had forced 27 saves from Buffalo goalie Robin Lehner.
“We've been in this situation lots,… Blashill said. “This is a situation that's certainly not new to us. We've had countless number of one-goal games, games like this where they've just kind of, it's just been real close the whole game.
“Part of it's that we haven't been able to separate ourselves, part of it's I think we've played good defense. The one thing we've got is great veteran leadership to understand in those games you just keep going. You've got to be OK with not much happening in the shift and get out the next shift and take what's given and not force things.
“Our veterans do a good job making sure our young guys know that and I thought we did a good job of that tonight.…
Larkin’s goal that did finally break the ice was a simple case of throwing the puck on net and seeing what happens.
“The goalie wasn’t ready for it,… Larkin said. “I knew he wasn’t going to be ready. I thought I had an open net but he did a good job of coming back. It got through his legs.
“You see those going in a lot these days.
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