Trending: Wings' solid play finally results in victory

DETROIT -- The Red Wings finally got to talk about a victory after playing the right way.
After two straight overtime losses in which they held a third-period lead, the Wings defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1, at Little Caesars Arena Friday night.

The victory snapped a three-game winless streak for Detroit.
The Wings improved to 12-13-7 overall and 6-6-6 at home while the Leafs fell to 20-13-1 overall and 10-8-1 on the road.
Toronto played without star forward Auston Matthews (upper body) for the fourth straight game.
1. Trevor Daley: The Wings had talked this past week about looking for a little more offense from their blue line. With Niklas Kronwall in the penalty box for hooking, Daley scooped up the puck and headed toward the Leafs' end with Dylan Larkin. Daley used Larkin as the perfect decoy and shot the puck from the left circle past Toronto goaltender Curtis McElhinney at 11:22 of the second, giving the Wings a 2-1 lead. It was Daley's first goal as a Wing and his first in 42 games. Daley last scored on Jan. 31, 2017 against the Nashville Predators when he was with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was Daley's third career shorthanded goal and Detroit's sixth shorthanded goal of the season, tying them with the San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers for the league lead. Larkin has two shorties and Frans Nielsen, Darren Helm and Luke Glendening have one apiece. The six shorties in 32 games are more than the combined shorthanded goals from 2015-16 (two) and 2016-17 (three). The Wings have scored shorthanded goals in consecutive games for the first time since April 1, 2007 at Columbus (Pavel Datsyuk) and April 3, 2007 against Columbus (Kris Draper).
Quotable: "I don't know what I was thinking, to be honest with you. I try not to think too much out there. It gets me into trouble usually. He took the pass away and saw a chance to shoot. We're on the PK, too, so you don't want to pass and have it sent back the other way. It's nice to score, but obviously even better is the win tonight. We've been doing the right things lately and haven't been able to get the results. This is a big one for us. We needed it. It's a step in the right direction." - Daley
Quotable II: "He's been really good. He's another guy that can play top four minutes. He's calm under pressure, he knows what it takes to win. He's demanding of his teammates. He's just a real good player for us. The pairing with Johnny Ericsson - he was excellent for us again tonight. Johnny doesn't seem to get the praise he deserves. I thought he was excellent. He goes out and plays against the other team's best every night." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Danny DeKeyser: It's been rough sledding for DeKeyser over the past season and a half. The Detroit native had a disappointing 2016-17 campaign where he played in all 82 games and tallied four goals among his 12 total points and was a minus-22. He entered this year determined to turn last season around and reestablish himself as a force on the Wings blueline. But in the third game of the season at Dallas, he fractured a bone in his ankle and missed 17 games. Since his return to the Wings lineup on November 19 versus Colorado, DeKeyser has gone through an adjustment period where he has been held pointless and was minus-10. Friday in his 12th game back from the injury, DeKeyser notched his first goal and point of the season and was plus-2. He told reporters this week he was feeling better and his game was rounding into form. It certainly looked that way against the Leafs.
Quotable: "The last few games I've started to feel a little bit better on the ice. I thought I had a little bit more jump and was getting up into the play a little bit more. I'm just going to try to keep that going. Anytime you score, it gives you a confidence boost." - DeKeyser
3.Henrik Zetterberg/Jimmy Howard: The Wings captain hasn't had quite the same offensive success he had last season but Zetterberg is always great against the Leafs. Zetterberg set up DeKeyser's goal to tie the game at 1 in the second and then he made a perfect pass to Tomas Tatar at the net for a power-play goal in the third, giving the Wings a two-goal cushion. In 24 games against Toronto, Zetterberg has nine goals among 30 points. Zetterberg now has a three-game point streak in which he has one goal and three assists. Like the rest of the team, Howard has not necessarily been rewarded for playing well but that changed on Friday. While the Wings were working their way into the game, the Leafs came out with 12 shots in the first, scoring on their second with Andreas Borgman's shot from the point. Howard did not let the early goal bother him and kept the Leafs off the board for the rest of the game. He finished with 25 saves for his 10th win of the season.
Quotable: "He played outstanding. He's the type of player who steps up in this situation, that's why he's one of the best and he picked up many points in the NHL. He knows how to step up." - Tatar
Quotable II: "I didn't think we gave up a crazy amount of great chances but I thought Jimmy was real solid all game. You get scored on right away, it's a hard thing. He was real solid all game. I thought their guy played good, Jimmy played better. Our special teams were better and our goaltending was better and that was the difference in the game." - Blashill
Quotable III: "The last couple of games some unfortunate bounces that ended up in the back of our net. Tonight, we finished it up, we went out there and continued to play in the third period and we were able to come up with two points." -- Howard