Trending: Bobrovsky prevails in goaltending duel

DETROIT- The Red Wings couldn't make their shootout magic last forever.
Despite Frans Nielsen scoring first in the shootout and goaltender Jimmy Howard making save after save, the Blue Jackets prevailed in the ninth round as Jack Johnson scored for the 2-1 victory.

Johnson ended the Wings' league-record for consecutive shootout wins at 12.
The last time the Wings lost in a shootout was Feb. 20, 2016 at Ottawa.
Nielsen is now the league's all-time leader in shootout goals with 46, passing Radim Vrbata. Nielsen has 93 attempts to Vrbata's 105.
Sergei Bobrovsky earned first star honors for making 32 saves in regulation and overtime and an additional eight in the shootout.
1. Jimmy Howard: Howard returned to the net after his 3-2 victory Monday in Vancouver. Howard was tested quite a bit by the seemingly not-tired-from-playing-the-previous-night Blue Jackets. One of the biggest challenges came at the end of the first period when Josh Anderson was awarded a penalty shot at 19:17. Howard, who has been stellar in shootouts the last few seasons, was ready with the glove to stop Anderson and prevent Columbus from taking a two-goal lead. Howard gave up a goal to Artemi Panarin at 1:07 of the first period and then a shootout goal to Panarin in the second round.
Quotable: "It was unbelievable. Some of the saves that were made were incredible. Obviously in overtime, there were some unreal saves and then the shootout goes forever. It was fitting the shootout went that long because I thought both goalies were excellent. Looks like two of the better goalies in the league, the way both those guys are on top of their game. That's the league." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable II: "I know it's his move and I still bit on it. I didn't think he was going to do it on me because I've seen it plenty of times before and I ended up biting. He did a great job." - Howard on Johnson
2. Andreas Athanasiou: Andreas Athanasiou was second on the Wings last season with 18 goals to Tomas Tatar's 25. Trailing the Blue Jackets 1-0 in the third period, Athanasiou rushed toward the net and got a perfect pass from Niklas Kronwall to finally beat Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky at 6:11. Tatar got the second assist. It was Athanasiou's second goal since returning to the Wings and his first in six games, since he scored Oct. 28 at Florida. Athanasiou got lots of ice time, playing 25 shifts for 20:32. He had four shots, two takeaways and was plus-1. Athanasiou had a great chance in overtime when Anthony Mantha passed to him on a 2-on-0 against Bobrovsky.
Quotable: "I looked back there and saw we had a little bit of time and saw Mantha hustling up so I think it'd be better to make it a 2-on-0 as opposed to a 1-on-0, he has to worry about two shooters. But obviously that didn't matter for him." -- Athanasiou
Quotable II: "I think from a standpoint of getting back after missing time (Athanasiou's) totally there. Like every other player, we continue to work on getting better on lots of things. I thought he was playing good tonight. I thought he started to really feel it. I think he got fed minutes as a result. The other thing we had with the 11 forwards, we had about four guys who could play center and all of them saw lots of minutes. Nielsen would have saw the least just because I was holding him back and trying to get the match on that." -- Blashill
3. Zach Werenski: It was a quiet night on the scoresheet for the Blue Jackets' talented young defenseman. The Grosse Pointe Woods native and former Michigan standout logged 23:07 of ice time in a pointless effort and was an even player. A lifelong Red Wings fan, Werenski wrote a letter to Joe Louis Arena on the eve of the Blue Jackets' last game ever at the Joe, which was played on February 7, 2017, a 3-2 Columbus overtime victory. In his letter, Werenski thanked the old barn "for the memories and for housing the tradition, for representing a historic franchise and for helping a wide-eyed kid from suburban Detroit fall in love with hockey." He ended his letter by asking the Joe if it could put in a good word for him because he really wanted to have one of the arena's chairs. On Saturday, Werenski returned home to play the Wings at Little Caesars Arena, his first time back since penning his thankful letter of good-bye to the Joe.
Quotable: "It's a little bit different when you come here, you don't get to go to Joe Louis, especially for me, someone who grew up in that that building watching games, playing games, it was such an iconic building for so many young kids around here and just people. So, to be here this year is a little bit different but I think the building here is great. You notice right away it's state of the art, it's phenomenal. I think it's great for the city and I think it's probably the best building in the NHL. It's fun to come here and see what they've done. The city definitely deserves it." - Werenski