Henrik Zetterberg is now 2-2 in shootouts this season as he got the winner and Petr Mrazek made 31 saves to improve to 8-5-3.
Mrazek stopped Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little and Drew Stafford in the shootout.
The Wings are now 4-0 in shootouts this season after going 13-29 the previous four seasons.
1. Thomas Vanek/Tomas Tatar: Since his return from missing 11 games with a hip injury, Vanek has been looking to get back the scoring touch he had before he was injured. He's had four assists and a shootout winning goal but not a goal otherwise. At 17:52 of the second, Vanek deflected Xavier Ouellet's pass past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck for his first goal since Oct. 25 against Carolina. Vanek has a three-game point streak (1-2-3). After Frans Nielsen failed to score in the shootout, Vanek got the Wings on the board by beating Hellebuyck.
The Wings need more goal scorers and one of the players who can put the puck in the net is Tatar. At 7:05 of the first, Tatar did just that, knocking a rebound past Hellebuyck. It was Tatar's first goal since Nov. 20. It extends Tatar's point streak to three games (1-3-4). Zetterberg assisted on the goal, extending his own point streak to five games (3-3-6).
Quotable: "Vanek's been playing good. He hasn't scored but he's been pointing. With Tats, specifically, Tats had lots of chances, I think it's important to score, it just reiterates that you're playing good hockey and he's been playing good hockey and getting chances but certainly scorers like to score. I think it gives them lots of confidence." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Anthony Mantha: Mantha's showing that he feels more comfortable in the NHL, not only settling in with line mates Zetterberg and Tatar, but not letting mistakes get in his way. Although Mantha had a couple of giveaways during the game, he also scored an important goal in the second period. Down 3-1, Mantha was out with Dylan Larkin and went to the right side of the net where he was able to wait for Larkin to get him the puck. Mantha now has four goals and three assists in 12 games.
Quotable: "Put the puck in deep, put pressure and then Larkin intercepted that pass. Obviously, we all know he can wheel around and that's exactly what he did. Great pass in front of the net and I had a wide-open net." - Mantha
3. Overcoming a bad first: The Wings let the Jets set the tempo in the first period, getting out-shot 16-7 and outscored 3-1. The Wings rebounded in the second period to tie the game. In the third, the Wings did not let the Jets get a shot for more than 12 minutes.
Quotable: "I didn't think we had the jump, the compete level that's necessary for us to be successful. I think we have to be an ultra-competitive team to have success. If we are ultra-competitive I think our skill can take over, but we can't go through and skill it around the rink without being ultra-competitive. The one thing I've said lots is we've got good culture in our locker room, we got great leadership and they responded. They came out in the second and third and played much, much better hockey. Obviously, we still needed good goaltending at certain points of the game. But I just was real happy with the way our guys responded after the first." - Blashill
4. Patrik Laine: Before the game, Michigan native Jacob Trouba said that while everything said about Laine's shot is true, his passing can get overlooked. Trouba brought up the Jets' recent win in St. Louis in overtime. Laine had a 2-on-1 and everyone assumed he would shoot but instead passed it to his teammate for the game-winner. The same thing happened in the first period when Laine and Dustin Byfuglien came in 2-on-1 and Laine passed it to Byfuglien for the goal at 11:22. That gave the Jets a 2-1 lead. Then Laine scored at 13:06 to make it 3-1 when his shot went off of Tatar and Mike Green for the double deflection. The goal gives Laine 17, tying him with Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby for the league lead. Laine also got the only shootout goal for Winnipeg.
Quotable: "He's a great player. You see that in the shootout he does there. He has a lot of confidence. He has a lot of things. He's big; he's got a long reach. He's got really good hands, good shot. He will be a good player in this league for many, many years." - Zetterberg
