Gustav Nyquist beat Arizona goaltender Mike Smith in the first round of the shootout and Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek kept Brendan Perlini, Radim Vrbata and Oliver Ekman-Larsson from scoring as the Wings earned a 5-4 victory over the Coyotes in a back-and-forth game Thursday at Gila River Arena.
1. Henrik Zetterberg: Sent to the penalty box for the second time in the game for interference at 11:43 of the third period, Zetterberg came right out of the box and beat Smith with a shot that hit the goalie and went in at 13:55. The goal gave Zetterberg 324 for his career, tying him with Norm Ullman for sixth in team history. Zetterberg also assisted on Mike Green's goal at 3:52 of the third.
Quotable: "My second penalty. I got the puck and it was two on one, me and Helm and their D gave me a shooting lane. It's not my hardest shot in my career but it found a way to go in." - Zetterberg
2. Dylan Larkin/Andreas Athanasiou/Tomas Tatar: Larkin got the Wings on the board first, scoring on the power play from the right circle at 8:11 of the first period. It was Larkin's 14th goal of the season. He is now third on the team in goals behind Tatar's 18 and Andreas Athanasiou's 16. Riley Sheahan and Athanasiou assisted. It was Sheahan's first point since Feb. 19 at Pittsburgh. Tatar scored his 18th to the the game at 2 at 4:45 of the second, their second power play goal of the game. Athanasiou assisted on that goal as well. Tatar assisted on Green's goal.
Quotable: "I thought, well I guess No. 1 Dylan Larkin was excellent, Andreas Athanasiou was excellent. I thought those two guys did a real good job on back to backs. They had the young legs and they did an excellent job, so that would be one thing for sure." - Blashill
Quotable II: "I think playing with a guy like Andreas is huge. It makes myself as a centerman worry less about how we're going to get up the ice. In the Colorado game, a few times I just threw it to his wing where he was flying and you know he's going to get the puck in the other zone and we're going to have chances to play offense. We've been focusing on holding onto the pucks more and trying to create off the cycle. We got some puck luck tonight but puck kind of seemed to follow us around. We did a good job of stopping on pucks and hanging onto it and trying to make some plays down low." - Larkin
3 .Mike Green: Green took a perfect pass from Zetterberg, skated around Alex Goligoski and beat Arizona goaltender Mike Smith with a backhand shot from the left side of the net at 3:52 of the third period, snapping a 2-2 tie. It was Green's first goal since Feb. 4 at Nashville and his 11th of the season. Green also assisted on Tatar's goal.
Quotable: "It did feel good that it snuck in. Really, it was Z's play. He faked the dump and passed it right on my tape with speed and I just tried to get around that first D man and I just tried to get a backhand on net." - Green
Quotable II: "I saw when he was coming late. Smitty is pretty good at playing the puck, so I tried to get it away from him. I saw he was open right at the last second. Then he makes a brilliant move and scores a nice goal." - Zetterberg
