When Jimmy Howard and Henrik Lundqvist face off in New York, it tends to become about them and that was once again the case as the Rangers got a 2-1 overtime victory.
Tomas Tatar scored Detroit's only goal.
Chris Kreider and Mats Zuccarello (overtime winner) scored for the Rangers, who have won seven in a row at home.
1. Jimmy Howard: Howard entered the game 5-3-2 with a 1.69 goals-against average and .951 save percentage in 10 games against the Rangers. Those kind of numbers generally translate to more wins until you consider the other man in net, Lundqvist. Howard did not get a lot of work in the first period, facing only six shots, two by New York's Pavel Buchnevich, who has eight goals this season. But in the second, things got scrambly around Howard and he responded with 16 saves in the frame. Howard denied Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Shattenkirk, Rick Nash, all of whom had great opportunities. The Rangers got their first goal on Kreider's backhand shot at 10:17 of the third. Zuccarello's goal game 37 seconds into overtime. Howard finished with 29 saves.
Quotable: "It's New York City. I think everyone enjoys coming in here and playing. This is the greatest arena in the world as far as I'm concerned. Being from New York I love playing here." - Howard
Quotable II: "There's no question. You go back just in the last two games (at MSG last year), last year he was unreal, he stole us a game. This game, he didn't necessarily steal it but him and Henrik were both great. But he's played that way pretty consistently. You need elite goaltending to be a good team in this league." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Henrik Lundqvist: Lundqvist came into the game 6-4-2 with a 1.98 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in 12 games against the Wings. Lundqvist was exceptional in the first period and had to be as he was kept exceptionally busy by the Wings, who fired 18 shots on him. Among those saves were on Dylan Larkin's breakaway, on Team Sweden teammate Henrik Zetterberg's shot, on Frans Nielsen's shot with Darren Helm screening and on Danny DeKeyser's shot with Justin Abdelkader screening. Lundqvist finished with 40 saves.
Quotable: "As I said both him and Lundqvist played really well, made some highlight saves. It probably could have been 4-4 instead of 1-1." - Zetterberg
Quotable II: "I thought our guys did a good job of staying with it. We've talked lots that frustration is a total waste of time, it doesn't do anybody any good at all. Let's just keep focusing on having great process and it's the same for our team. If we play like that on a consistent basis, which we have over the course of the last 2 1/2 - 3 weeks, we'll be good hockey team. So let's keep playing like that." - Blashill
3. Tomas Tatar: It figured that the first goal of the game would come with a man-advantage. With Rangers forward Michael Grabner in the box for tripping Andreas Athanasiou, Tatar fired the puck from the right circle, beating Lundqvist short-side at 4:05 of the third period. There were just two seconds left in the power play. Niklas Kronwall and Henrik Zetterberg assisted on Tatar's seventh of the season. Only Anthony Mantha with 10 goals has more than Tatar for the Wings this season. Tatar has three goals and an assist in his last four games.
Quotable: "It is what it is. Overall, if we are gonna be playing like this, good things are gonna be happening. We came out to play strong. We did a lot of good things. We played for 60 minutes. The only thing we were missing were more goals. Howie playing outstanding. Their goalie was good, too. Just find a little more and the game would be ours." - Tatar