DETROIT — The first three power plays for the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night felt more like Devils power plays.
Between a short-handed goal, a 5-on-3 penalty kill and another short-handed goal, all the momentum went toward the Devils. After struggling in recent games on the penalty kill, a refocused group saw results.
“We had a couple of meetinga since we’ve been back, both yesterday and this morning,” defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. “We need to clean that up. That’s been a big part of the reason we had success this year, and we’ve given up eight goals in the past five games.
“Situationally we need to be better, and tonight we were.”
SH goals key in win over Wings
The Devils did allow a power play goal on the third power play, with Tomas Tatar scoring just after Devils forward Adam Henrique scored the team’s second short-handed goal of the night for a 4-1 lead — the winning goal in a 4-3 Devils victory.
But the Devils killed the final penalty they faced, where the Red Wings skated with a 6-on-4 advantage with the goalie pulled with less than two minutes to Gencobahis play.
“You knew they were going to get a look.” goalie Cory Schneider said. “They were going to get an opportunity 6-on-4, and I thought our guys did a tremendous job just blocking shots, clearing pucks and forcing them to do something they didn’t want to.”
The Devils continued to put themselves in spots where they needed to lean on the penalty kill after racking up 10 penalty minutes, but they were able to hold off the Red Wings.
Coach John Hynes pointed to the 5-on-3 penalty kill in the second period where the Red Wings could have scored one or two goals to cut into the Devils’ 2-0 lead.
“That’s a big, probably, turning point of the game,” Hynes said. “I thought we did an excellent job on that, being in shot lanes, staying back. Penalty kill was a big difference in the game for us, obviously with the two shorties.”
Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com Devils on Facebook.
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