Speaking to the media after Saturday’s game, Christian Fischer said a strong team effort helped the Red Wings snap a season-long seven-game losing streak.
“I think we played a really complete game,” said Fischer, who scored his third goal of the season on Saturday. “Start to finish, not too many lapses in the D-zone. They didn’t have too many extended shifts in a row in our zone. In between periods, we talked about it. We just felt a different compete level, a different kind of back-to-our-old ways you start to feel in the hockey game.”
Goalie James Reimer, who stopped 25 of 26 shots against Buffalo for his seventh win of the season, said Detroit embraced the need to play with urgency and desperation.
“Our sense of urgency was just incredible (Saturday),” Reimer said. “There was a complete buy-in. From my point of view when I was watching the game, you felt comfortable back there just knowing guys were in their spots and working. When they made good plays or were on the winning side of a few battles, our guys fought back and got back on the right side of the puck. It was a lot of fun to watch them.”
For the second straight game, the Red Wings will face another club battling for a spot in the Eastern Conference Playoffs race. Pittsburgh enters Sunday seven points behind Detroit for the second wild-card spot and will host the Red Wings again on April 11 to wrap up the season series.