The Detroit Red Wings downed the Phoenix Coyotes 3-2 on Monday night but lost yet another key player to injury as defenseman Jonathan Ericsson left the game early.
Ericsson injured his knee in a collision with Phoenix’s Shane Doan late in the first period. The Coyotes scored their first goal of the game while Ericsson was down on the ice.
With Darren Helm already out, Ericsson became the eighth Red Wing missing from the Detroit lineup as the game continued.
Helm’s replacement, Kris Newbury, scored the game’s opening goal just 5:25 into the game. Newbury banged the puck past Phoenix netminder Ilya Bryzgalov off a centering feed.
Patrick Eaves added a shorthanded goal with 9:23 left in the period, snapping a shot from the left faceoff circle past Bryzgalov on a rush.
The Coyotes pulled pulled back to within a goal with 4:52 left in the first. After Ericsson fell to the ice from the hit by Doan, the Red Wings could not regain control of the puck in their own end of the ice, ending with Taylor Pyatt putting it past Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard on the open side of the net.
Derek Meech restored the two-goal lead for Detroit at 2:05 of the second, firing a shot from just inside the blue line that seemed to fool Bryzgalov, slipping through his glove.
Radim Verbata put the Coyotes back within a goal with 37 seconds remaining in the second period but the Wings held on through a scoreless third to preserve the lead and get the win.
Howard finished the night with 30 saves on 32 Phoenix shots. Bryzgalov stopped 29 of 32 Detroit chances.
Neither team scored a power play goal. The Red Wings had four tries with the extra attacker while the Coyotes had three.
Ericsson will be reevaluated on Tuesday. In addition to him, the Red Wings are missing Andreas Lilja, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Jason Williams, Niklas Kronwall, Dan Cleary and Darren Helm.
