Red Wings Rally to End Slump with 6-3 Win over Sabres

The Detroit Red Wings ended their losing streak at six games, rallying from down late in the second period for a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.

The Sabres had a 3-1 lead until Danny DeKeyser scored the first of five consecutive goals for the Red Wings. DeKeyser whipped a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Buffalo netminder Michal Neuvirth with 2:06 left in the second period.

Henrik Zetterberg tied things up at 4:19 of the third. After protecting the puck along the left wing boards, Zetterberg gave it to Pavel Datsyuk and moved into the high slot. Datsyuk sent a pass back and Zetterberg blasted a shot through a screen by Justin Abdelkader.

With 8:20 remaining and the Red Wings on a power play, Tomas Tatar made it 4-3. Danny DeKeyser worked it to Gustav Nyquist, who drove to the net but then dropped it back to DeKeyser for a pass over to Tatar in the left circle. Tatar beat Neuvirth with a snapped shot from the faceoff dot.

Johan Franzen put Detroit up by a pair 2:26 later. Franzen’s initial shot from the top of the left circle was knocked down, with the rebound slipping past Datsyuk in the slot and back out to Franzen, who continued into the right circle for a snapper past Neuvirth for another power play goal.

Tatar rounded out the scoring on his second power play tally with 2:12 left. From low in the right circle, Nyquist sent a pass up to Brendan Smith near the blue line for a slap-pass down to Tatar, who lifted it past Neuvirth.

Buffalo’s Nicolas Deslauriers had opened the scoring at 2:36 of the first period. Drew Stafford threw the puck out front from the corner and it bounced off Deslauriers’ chest and past Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek for the early lead.

With 9:10 left in the opening period, Stephen Weiss deflected a Jakub Kindl shot from the blue line past Neuvirth for the Red Wings’ first power play goal of the night to tie things up.

Chris Stewart put the Sabres back in front 2:45 later, racing past Kindl to get open for a pass from Cody Hodgson on a rush and tapping it past Mrazek.

Andre Benoit made it 3-1 at 9:00 of the middle frame, beating Mrazek on a shorthanded two-on-none with Brian Flynn.

Mrazek finished the night with 13 saves on 16 shots against. Neuvirth stopped 33 of 39 shots.

Detroit went four-for-six on the power play but allowed one shorthanded goal. The Sabres did not score on their lone power play attempt.

The Red Wings are now off for Christmas. They’ll return on Saturday when they visit the Ottawa Senators.

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Weiss returned to the Detroit lineup after missing four games due to injury. Goalie Jimmy Howard was placed on short-term IR to make room for Weiss in the lineup. With Weiss back, Daniel Cleary was a healthy scratch… Weiss’ return was short-lived as he left the game in the third period with an apparent head injury… Niklas Kronwall left the game with an “upper-body injury” in the second period… Joakim Andersson and Brian Lashoff were healthy scratches.