Trending: Bernier's play lifts Red Wings past Islanders, 2-1

DETROIT-- If the New York Islanders miss the playoffs by a few points, they'll have nightmares of Red Wings goalie Jonathan Bernier throughout the offseason.
Detroit's netminder was simply fantastic on Saturday afternoon as the Red Wings sunk the Islanders, 2-1, in front of an appreciative crowd at Little Caesars Arena.

Andreas Athanasiou potted both Wings goals, giving him 26 for the season, with defenseman Danny DeKeyser assisting on both goals.
DeKeyser also led the Wings in ice time, clocking in at a whopping 28:55.
Anders Lee scored the lone goal for the Isles, who were all over the Detroit net, but were unable to beat a zoned-in Bernier.
"We had 40-plus shots and played a really good game, but Bernier played a wonderful game," Lee said. "Give the Red Wings credit for doing what it took to keep us from getting the second goal."
With the victory, the Wings snapped a four-game losing slide and improved to 25-37-10.
The Islanders, in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race, fell to 41-23-7.
Up next for the Red Wings is a five-game road trip, which will take them from sea to shining sea. The Wings will play at the Rangers on Tuesday before heading west to face St. Louis, Vegas, and San Jose. The Wings will close out the trip with a game at Buffalo on March 28, but they have a day off in Motown before they travel to the Queen City of the Great Lakes.
It will be a quick turnaround for the Islanders, who head to Minnesota to face the Wild on St. Patrick's Day, a crucial contest after dropping Saturday's game to the Wings.
1. Jonathan Bernier: It hasn't been an ideal first season in Detroit for Bernier. Heading into Saturday's game versus the Islanders, his record stood at 6-17-5, with a goals-against average of 3.33, a save percentage of .899 and one shutout. But every Red Wing will tell you Bernier has played much better than his overall numbers. Against the Isles, Bernier put together one of his best performances of the season. New York played desperate hockey and had numerous scoring opportunities, but Bernier was more than equal to the task. He was never caught out of position and his rebound control was exceptional. Bernier faced 42 shots, making 41 saves, many of them of the high-quality variety for a .976 save percentage. His 41 saves mark his third-highest total of the season. He made 49 saves on Nov. 10 at Carolina and 45 stops on Dec. 15 at the Islanders. The victory was Bernier's first since Feb. 2 when he shut out the Senators, 2-0, in Ottawa.

Quotable: "It comes down to your read and knowing where the guys are on the ice and when you feel you're on it just seems you know where the puck is going to go and where the guys are if they're a one timer or not. When you're in good position you don't need to move much (because) the puck is usually going to hit you. I felt pretty good right off the bat, but I thought we did a pretty good job especially on our PK, I was able to see pretty much everything and when I didn't control the rebound the 'D' were in good position. So, I thought overall it was a team effort." -- Bernier
Quotable II: "There's times we've come out and haven't played hard for him. He's got peppered. He's a guy who works extremely hard in practice, does it right every day. Not the loudest guy, goes about his business and is always prepared to play, so we're really happy for him. He's a great guy and it's something the whole team can build off." -- Dylan Larkin
Quotable III: "I thought he was excellent. We gave up way too many chances, we weren't good enough defensively, especially through the middle of the ice. They were slashing, putting pucks behind, we gave up way, way, way too many chances so we got to be better than that. I actually thought we competed, I thought we worked. I thought we actually produced a good number of chances as well but in the end, Bernie was excellent. That's why we won." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable IV: "I thought we carried a good amount of the play and had good chances. This is a game where you look at the process more than the results. If we play this way, we'll get a lot of wins. If Bernier doesn't have that night, we probably win 4-1, but they got a fortunate goal and we probably have 25 scoring chances and couldn't bury them." -- Islanders coach Barry Trotz

2. Andreas Athanasiou: Not long ago, Wings coach Jeff Blashill said that he was going to put Athanasiou at center and leave him there for the remaining 20 games of the season. In Dylan Larkin's absence the last five games, Athanasiou centered the top line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha. Larkin returned Saturday but Athanasiou remained with Bertuzzi and Luke Glendening joined them. At 2:55 of the first period, Athanasiou shot the puck from the right circle and it hit Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock and deflected into the net. In the second, Athanasiou went to the left side of the net and was there to poke the puck into the net when Danny DeKeyser spotted him. DeKeyser got the first assist on both goals. Bertuzzi got the second assist on the second goal, which was Athanasiou's 27th of the season. He trails Larkin by just one for the team lead. It is the sixth time this season Athanasiou has had two goals in a game, a team high, and it gave him 14 multi-point games, which leads the team. Athanasiou finished with 21 shifts for 19:23, had a team-high six shots, one takeaway, was 6-of-10 in face-offs and was plus-2.

Quotable: "I think just as he got the puck he looked to the net and kind of saw me sneak in around the net and saw me all alone. We kind of made a little eye contact there and then he put it right on my tape and I emptied it. It's definitely a good feeling. When you get the puck there spot on and have a whole net to put the puck into, that's a good feeling, especially to give our team the lead." -- Athanasiou

Quotable II: "It would be huge. The way he's playing right now, he should get that marker. He's dynamic, he's an explosive scorer. The way he skated tonight, not many people can defend that. He played the right way, so good for him and it's huge for our team. If he can produce at the center-ice position, it'll be harder match-ups for other teams coming in. We'll have two guys that can skate well at center." -- Larkin
Quotable III: "It shows his talent level. He's got high-end talent level. We haven't had a 30-goal scorer here, I think since '09. So it's a big mark for us. I think tonight he competed real hard. I thought he was really, really good defensively in his D-zone. I think he did the things that if he's going to be a center, and I don't know long term what's better, but if he's gonna be, he's got to play like he did tonight and he was excellent tonight, I thought." -- Blashill
Quotable IV: "I keep bugging him in practice he needs to slow down to score some goals because he's going so fast, but he gets so many scoring chances a night. He's definitely one of the fastest skaters in the league and he's a great player." -- Bernier
3. Dylan Larkin/Ryan Kuffner: At the end of warmups, there was Larkin skating alone, shooting a few last pucks in the net and tossing a few more to the fans. It was a sight that had been missing for the last five games. Larkin centered the top line with Mantha and Darren Helm, a group that was together earlier in the season before Mantha got injured. Larkin finished with 23 shifts for 21:50, had two shots, one hit, one giveaway, one blocked shot, was 4-of-12 in face-offs and was even. No forward had more ice time than Larkin. Kuffner, making his NHL debut in front of friends and family, started on a line with Frans Nielsen and Thomas Vanek but also played some with Jacob de la Rose and Michael Rasmussen, in addition to playing on the second power-play unit. Kuffner finished with 11 shifts for 7:08, 1:53 of that on the power play, and was even.
Quotable: "I felt good. Felt good to be back out there. A little rusty but it'll come back. It's been a little bit of time off, so just getting back into it, thinking the game and moving pucks. I thought our line generated and we were up against (Mathew) Barzal's line, it was tough containing him." - Larkin

Quotable II: "I thought (Kuffner) played fine. I think it's a really, really difficult thing when you come in and I just talked to his college coach, Ron Fogerty, who used to coach Adrian College, does a great job. I've known him a long time. He said Ryan's had the same linemates for four years. So the chemistry they've had there for four years has been incredible. Well, now all of a sudden it's new linemates, totally new systems. I grabbed him before and talked about playing on his instincts and not thinking too much. Well, it's impossible. You're still trying to do the systems right. I just think it's one of those things where you never judge any player when they come into a situation like that. I used to have that in the American League where really, really, really good players that we drafted high would come in and they, at times, would hurt our team because they weren't on the same page as everybody else. I just think it's going to be process. He'll get enough games, he's not necessarily going to play every game but he'll get enough games that he'll get a feel for what he needs to do to be successful in this league and he'll get a little feel for what he is as a player. I don't think it's a foolproof feel, but a little feel." -- Blashill