Poor puck management proved to be their downfall as the Detroit Red Wings finished their three-game road trip in negative fashion, allowing three third-period goals during a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday at the Air Canada Centre.
“I think we played good for two periods,” Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “We then gave the game away, too many turnovers.
“Both their late goals there we turned the puck over and odd-man rushes, or breakaways and they’re skilled when they get their chances.”
A pair of bad decisions by right-winger Gustav Nyquist helped paved the way to Detroit’s defeat. During a third-period power play, an ill-advised feed by Nyquist to Niklas Kronwall with Toronto center Tyler Bozak all over the Detroit defenseman led to a turnover and a shorthanded breakaway goal by Bozak that snapped a 1-1 tie.
“We were on the power play, turned it over and had an entry again where we turned the puck over,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “Anytime you turn pucks over they’re going to bite you.
“We should attack the net on those plays and we didn’t, and in the end we dug it out of our net.”
Later in the period, Nyquist tried to dipsy-doodle his way past Leafs forward Peter Holland at the Toronto blue-line and was stripped of the puck, Holland taking it the other way to beat Jimmy Howard and make it 3-1.
“Bad plays I will say,” Zetterberg said. “Unfortunately that happens. As I said, I think we played a decent game up until that.
“Unfortunately we do those mistakes.”
Line Dancing
One bright spot on the night was again the forward line of Riley Sheahan between Justin Abdelkader and Tomas Tatar, which produced Detroit’s only goal, the third straight game in which Tatar has scored. He has netted four goals during that span and has put up 5-2-7 numbers in his last five games.
“He’s playing on a line with good players, earning more opportunity,” Babcock said of Tatar. “The big thing is they all have a dimension. Tatar’s game is rounding out. Tatar has a chance to be a real good player in the league if he keeps working and developing, taking care of the puck.
“Sheahan’s a guy who’s got to get his feet going and get through the neutral zone, but knows how to play with and without and the puck. Abdelkader has turned himself into a real good pro who’s heavy on the forecheck, at the net, and knows how to play, so they’ve got the makings of a good line.”
Zetterberg also sees plenty of promise in that unit.
“Yeah, they’ve been really great for us,” the Detroit captain said. “Those guys played really good for us last year. Maybe they didn’t have the start that they wanted, but they’ve been on fire here lately.
“They’re really good players and the plays they made today I think they could have had three or four goals. It’s fun to see.”
Comeback Fallback
The Wings rallied to beat Winnipeg 4-3 in their previous game after falling behind 2-0 and 3-2 for their fifth comeback win of the season, but came up short when they sought to rally from a 1-0 first-period deficit against the Leafs.
“Catch-up hockey is losing hockey,” Babcock said. “You’ve got to start on time. Eighty percent of the time the team that scores first wins.
“You’ve got to get started.”
It was the first loss in five games against Toronto by the Wings, who’d won four in a row since dropping the Jan. 1, 2014 Winter Classic to the Leafs at Michigan Stadium.
Detroit hadn’t lost at the ACC since Jan. 7, 2012, falling 4-3 to the Leafs on that occasion. The Wings had won three straight at Toronto.
X Factor
Playing his second game of the season since being recalled from AHL Grand Rapids, defenseman Xavier Ouellet made the feed to Tatar for the Detroit goal.
“He’s a good hockey player,” Babcock said. “He’s smart.
“You add it all together. You say, ‘I don’t know how big he is, I don’t know how good he skates,’ but he knows how to play, he looks like a veteran, he moves the puck, doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes.
“He fell down once but other than that was good.”
The Detroit veterans already feel a sense of comfort and trust when Ouellet is on the ice.
“He’s a smart defenseman,” Zetterberg said. “He sees the ice very well, and skates really good.
“He’s an NHL player.”
“X looks great, he’s making the right plays, the right decisions all the time," added Kronwall. "He looks like a veteran already.”

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