Red Wings Rebound with 4-1 Win over Islanders

Two days after an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning ended their six-game winning streak, the Detroit Red Wings bounced back with a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders.

The win kept the Red Wings in a tie for second place in the Atlantic Division with the Montreal Canadiens, one point back of the division-leading Lightning.

Tomas Tatar opened the game’s scoring for Detroit. At 5:29 of the first period, Tatar snapped a shot from near the right faceoff dot through traffic and into the far top corner, beating goalie Chad Johnson just 12 seconds into a power play.

Brendan Smith made it 2-0 with 47 seconds left in the period, wiring a one-timer into the same corner of the net from five feet further out.

The Islanders cut Detroit’s lead in half at 5:24 of the second. On a power play, Lubomir Visnovsky was left all alone in the high slot to take a feed from Frans Nielsen and tee up a shot past netminder Petr Mrazek.

Jonathan Ericsson restored the two-goal lead at 9:21 just as a Detroit power play expired. Ericsson’s shot from the left point deflected off Thomas Hickey, then bounced off the post and in for a 3-1 lead.

With 6:52 left in the middle frame, Gustav Nyquist knocked the rebound of a Henrik Zetterberg one-timer past Johnson to round out the game’s scoring with a power play goal.

Johnson finished the night with 15 saves on 19 shots while Mrazek stopped 22 of 23 attempts.

Detroit scored on two of their four power plays. The Islanders went one-for-four with the man-advantage.

The Red Wings are now off until Thursday when they visit the Colorado Avalanche.

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Prior to the game, defenseman Brian Lashoff cleared waivers and was assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Additionally, goalie Jonas Gustavsson was sent to the Griffins on a conditioning stint… Defenseman Alexey Marchenko made his season debut, replacing Xavier Ouellet in the lineup. Ouellet was returned to the Griffins on Friday… Daniel Cleary, Jakub Kindl, and Gustavsson were the healthy scratches… Goalie Jimmy Howard and forward Johan Franzen remain on injured reserve.