The Detroit Red Wings overcame an early case of nerves and, helped by Jakub Vrana, managed to take a step towards redemption.
Their contest against the playoff-primed Minnesota Wild on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena was magnified by having been booed off home ice two nights earlier following a loss to one of the worst teams in the NHL. The Wings made mistakes against the Wild, but they didn’t wilt in settling for a 6-5 shootout loss.
Vrana scored twice, adding to the goal he scored Tuesday in his season debut after missing 56 games recovering from shoulder surgery.
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Rookie Lucas Raymond also had a pair of goals. He turned a spin-pass from Nick Leddy into a one-timer to make it 2-2 in the first period, and redirected a pass from Leddy in the second period to make it 4-2. That was Leddy’s third assist of the night. It was as good a game as Leddy has played in a Wings uniform, and much needed after one of his worst in the Arizona loss.
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic went through some tough stretches and gave up goals to Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov. Nedeljkovic made seven saves in overtime but was beaten by Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala in the shootout.
Robby Fabbri did not finish the game because of a lower-body injury,
The Wings (24-27-7) are off to western Canada and next play at LCA on March 22, the day after the trade deadline.
What a scorer
Vrana calmed his team when he scored five minutes after the Wild had taken a 1-0 lead. He won a puck battle in the corner, batted it into the circle and ripped a shot behind Cam Talbot. Vrana scored again at 18:31 of the first period, converting near the end of a stretch where the Wings had 3:39 straight with a man advantage. Filip Hronek threaded a pass from the top of the left circle to near the far post, where Vrana dove to pop the puck into Minnesota’s net. That was two goals on two shots for Vrana.
Fragile start
The Wings looked nervous to start the game, and their fragility was answered when the Wild scored on its first shot, with Fiala feeding Boldy in the circle for a one-timer just 1:37 into the first period. It was the third straight game in which the Wings surrendered a goal early, following Travis Boyd’s marker 1:06 into Tuesday’s game and Mason Marchment scoring 4:10 into the Saturday’s loss to the Florida Panthers.
Sign of the times
If there’s a snapshot of how it’s going for the Wings right now, it happened at 12:07 of the first period. Nedeljkovic saw the puck coming towards the net and lifted his stick to play it. Instead, he swatted the puck into his own net. He looked like he had come out of a subpar stretch with a solid performance March 4 at Tampa Bay, but since substituting in for Thomas Greiss midway through Saturday’s game in Florida, he has looked as fragile as the team in front of him. When he knocked Ek’s shot into his own net, it was his ninth goal allowed on 32 shots in less than three full games.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.