Trending: Red Wings steamroll Coyotes, 6-1

DETROIT -- Perhaps the Red Wings knew they were playing on borrowed time.
After all, the Wings' good fortune of being victorious after being down two goals in their past three games was not a long-term recipe for success.

So, Detroit finally started a game on time and by the end of the first period, the scoreboard read Detroit 3, Arizona 0.
At the end of the night, the Wings skated away with a 6-1 victory over the Coyotes Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena.
The Wings have now won seven of their last eight games.
Anthony Mantha, Dennis Cholowski, Michael Rasmussen (power play), Luke Glendening, Andreas Athanasiou and Mike Green scored for the Wings, while Lawson Crouse found the back of the twine for the Coyotes.

Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard made 24 saves to run his current winning streak to five games, his longest since winning six straight from Jan. 12-23, 2012.
With the victory, the Wings reach the .500 mark for the season at 8-8-2. The Coyotes drop to 8-8-1.
Up next the Red Wings embark on a two-game road trip which begins Thursday night in Ottawa against the Senators and concludes with a Saturday afternoon affair in New Jersey versus the Devils. The Coyotes' next action is Thursday against Nashville in Arizona, which is the first game of a five-game homestand for the Coyotes.
1. Mike Green: Since Green's return to the Red Wings lineup on Oct. 26 versus Winnipeg, Detroit is 7-2. Always known as an offensive juggernaut from the back end, Green has refined his game and has become more of a two-way defenseman and a leader. Green picked up three points against the Coyotes, assisting on the Wings' first goal scored by Mantha at 10:13 of the first period. Green also assisted on Rasmussen's power-play goal at 17:22 of the first. He notched his first goal of the season at the 7:10 mark of the third period to give the Wings a 6-0 lead. Green's influence on the Wings cannot be overstated. He has a calm demeanor with a burning competitive drive, which has made him one of the most respected blueliners of his generation. Earlier the season, Cholowski admitted Green was one of the players he admired growing up and it's almost surreal they're on the same team. Green has not only jelled with his teammates, he has made a real connection with the city of Detroit. On and off the ice, Green has been a solid addition.

Quotable: "I thought that early on we did a lot of good things and it kind of got away from us a little bit, but sometimes when you get the bounces they just go in. That was the case tonight, so we'll take it. Oddly enough, I think that's how the league works at times. You put in the work and you stay consistent with it and it might not be that game, but down the road it does pay off. Tonight, it seemed like that was the case. I thought that we kind of regrouped in the third when we kind of got a little cute in the second. We stuck with it." -- Green
Quotable II: "We're 7-2 with him. We talked a little bit about the health of our D corps. These are real NHL defensemen that we got back and they're good players. Are they perfect? No chance. Are they real good players? Yes. Was Mike perfect tonight? No. But he makes lots of plays and does lots of good stuff. One thing about Mike that I love is his care level's off the charts. He wants to keep getting better. He's done some things in the league that not many defensemen have done when you look at his point totals. And he just wants to get better every day and he comes to practice and works his tail off every day." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable III: "He's a huge impact offensively and defensively, he skates so well, runs the power play so well. For a guy like me, I just try and soak up everything I can from him. I'm like a sponge learning everything I can." -- Cholowski
2. Anthony Mantha/Michael Rasmussen: The Wings want Mantha to have a shot mentality, to opt for shooting the puck even if there might be a pass available. It seems the young forward is getting the message. After scoring two third-period goals in Carolina to tie the game and force overtime, Mantha scored again, this one from the left circle, at 10:13 of the first period against the Coyotes.

Mantha now has six goals, second on the team in that category behind Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou, who have seven apiece. Frans Nielsen and Green had the assists. Mantha finished with 18 shifts for 12:55, had two shots, two giveaways and was plus-1.

Rasmussen is known for scoring on the power play from his net-front spot but he had to pay the price to do so. With the team on a two-man advantage, Rasmussen was knocked to his knees by Arizona defenseman Jason Demers but was still able to redirect Larkin's pass into the net. Rasmussen now has three goals, all on the power play, and moves into the team lead in that category, passing Thomas Vanek's two. Rasmussen finished with 18 shifts for 13:29, one shot, one hit, a takeaway, a blocked shot and was minus-1.
Quotable: "Bit of a tough start to the power play there. You just gotta be strong on your stick. I didn't really push it in. Larks just put it there. It was pretty easy. Just put your stick on the ice." -- Rasmussen
Quotable II: "(Rasmussen's) a big boy and at times it can be intimidating coming into the league as a young guy. He's kind of feeling like he can use his size. It's shown over the last three weeks to a month in that sense. Tonight he scored on his knees. Great shot." -- Green
Quotable III: "I think it's huge for our organization the more those guys can be a big part of it and can score. I think the positive in this stretch here, even when we haven't played our best, is we've found ways to score, and scoring is a huge thing. It's pretty much everything in the end. You can play great hockey and not score and you'll never win. So I think the fact we've found ways to score is a huge thing and I think Cholo (Cholowski) and Ras (Rasmussen) and Doubles (Athanasiou) and Mantha early in the year, they didn't score as much as they wanted to and now they seem like they're getting hot. I was real happy to see Mantha score. I know that helps his confidence tons and he feels good about himself and I think he's starting to kind of roll a little bit. It's a positive for us for sure." -- Blashill
3. Dennis Cholowski/Andreas Athanasiou: After scoring eight points (2-6-8) in his first 11 games, Cholowski had been a little quiet offensively for the last four games. But at 12:24 of the first period, Cholowski shot from the right circle, beating Kuemper stick-side and giving the Wings a 2-0 lead. The Coyotes challenged that Justin Abdelkader was interfering with Darcy Kuemper but the goal stood after a lengthy review. Danny DeKeyser and Tyler Bertuzzi picked up the assists. It was Cholowski's third goal of the season and first since Oct. 20 at Florida.

Cholowski's tally came on a night when Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun played his first game of the season. Arizona selected Chychrun 16th in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, the pick they got in the trade of Pavel Datsyuk's $7.5 million salary cap hit. With the pick they got in return, the Wings chose Cholowski 20th overall and Filip Hronek in the second round, 53rd overall. Cholowski finished with 22 shifts for 17:43, had one shot, one blocked shot and was even. Athanasiou also had a big impact on the game, as he has had since his return from missing four games with a lower-body injury. After sitting for two minutes for slashing at the end of the second/beginning of the third, Athanasiou jumped out of the box, broke in alone on Kuemper and scored on a backhand at 1:44 of the third. The goal ended Kuemper's night as he was replaced by Hunter Miska, making his NHL debut. It was the 50th goal of Athanasiou's career. He also assisted on Green's goal. Since his return, Athanasiou has a goal and an assist in each of the three games. In four career games against the Coyotes, Athanasiou has two goals and four assists. Athanasiou finished with 20 shifts for 14:42, had a team-high five shots, a takeaway, was 0-for-1 in face-offs and was plus-3.

Quotable: "Obviously, I wanted them to count it. Nothing much was going through (his mind). I didn't think it was goalie interference, so I was hoping they weren't going to call it back. It was a long look, usually they don't take that long, so I didn't know what was going on, but I was just hoping they wouldn't call it back." -- Cholowski
Quotable II: "I've liked (Cholowski) basically from the first time I saw him. He's really kind of beyond his years. He has great composure, makes a great first pass. He does a lot of really good things." -- Green

Quotable III: "We need it tons. If you can score easy, you can win games even when you don't play your best. Now I thought we were good in the first and third so I'm not saying we didn't play good tonight because we did. But when you can score, it makes life way better. It masks sometimes effort, it masks sometimes the mistakes, it masks those things so if we can get all those guys scoring at the level their potential, Double-A and Mantha and Larkin, all those guys scoring at the level, (Gustav) Nyquist, it makes you a way better hockey team. It makes you way more dangerous. The best teams are the ones that generally score. Everybody plays pretty good defense. I don't want to downplay defense but the best teams are the ones that find a way to score lots of goals. Double-A is a dangerous player and when he's scoring like that, we're a better hockey team." -- Blashill