Thu, Mar 22, 2018 page16

• Detroit halt slide with shoot-out win

  • AP, DETROIT, Michigan
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  It was difficult to tell in the dressing room if the Detroit Red Wings were especially excited or simply relieved.

  Frans Nielsen scored his NHL-record 22nd shoot-out winner as the Red Wings edged the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 on Tuesday night to end a 10-game losing streak — their longest since 1977.

  “Obviously, everyone was frustrated,” goalie Jimmy Howard said. “A lot of us have never gone through that in this dressing room. It was one of those things that just sort of snowballed. I’m glad we were just able to find a way to get a ‘W’ today.”

  

  Winnipeg Jets left wing Kyle Connor, right, waits for a rebound from a blocked shot on Los Angeles Kings goalie Jack Campbell on Tuesday in Winnipeg, Canada.

  Photo: James Carey Lauder-USA Today

  Dylan Larkin scored twice, Luke Glendending had a goal and Evgeny Svechnikov got his first in the NHL for the Red Wings. Howard made 27 saves through overtime and stopped all three attempts he faced in the shoot-out.

  Sean Couturier, Matt Read, Shayne Gostisbehere and Travis Konecny scored for the Flyers.

  The win did not come without some anxious moments for the Red Wings. They squandered 3-1 and 4-3 leads in the third period, and were forced to kill off a penalty to Danny DeKeyser that was assessed late in the third and carried into overtime.

  “I though the third period was exemplary of what happens when you haven’t won,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “You don’t have the confidence that you do when you win. I thought our gaps got real soft, we laid back too much. Good for our guys to stay with it. I thought we had lots of chances in overtime after their power play.”

  “The second period was God-awful for us,” Gostisbehere said. “We were OK in the first, but we were terrible in the second.”

  “We knew they had lost 10 in a row, so they were going to be fragile. If we could get one in the third, we had a good chance of getting a couple more, but we can’t show up in the third period and expect to win a game,” he added.

  JETS 2, KINGS 1

  Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice used a joke to ease any panic regarding an injury to Patrik Laine.

  Kyle Connor on Tuesday night scored his second goal of the game 1 minute, 37 seconds into overtime to lift Winnipeg over the Los Angeles Kings 2-1, despite losing Laine to a lower-body injury.

  Laine was helped down the tunnel to the dressing room about a minute and a half into the second period. He was not putting any weight on his left foot after blocking a shot by Kings defenseman Alec Martinez that hit him in the lower leg.

  When asked if the sniper took the shot above his skate, Maurice’s response drew chuckles.

  “It’s a concussion,” he deadpanned.

  “We think he’s going to be fine,” Maurice added. “We don’t think it’s anything long term.”

  The injury halted the forward’s 15-game point streak (18 goals, eight assists). That was the longest active streak in the NHL and a record for a teenager.

  Laine had also entered the game tied for the league goal-scoring lead with Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin, but the Capitals star got his 44th of the season and two assists in a 4-3 win over Dallas.

  “We’ll see how it comes in, but we’ve already had him looked at in a couple of different ways,” Maurice said. “There’s nothing sinister.”

  Connor fired the winner past goalie Jack Campbell to help the Jets set a franchise record for wins at 44 (44-19-10). Winnipeg had 43 wins in 2014-2015, and the Atlanta Thrashers hit the same mark in 2006-2007 before the franchise relocated in 2011.

  Connor scored his 26th goal of the season late in the second. It was Winnipeg’s third straight victory.

  Dustin Brown scored his 23rd goal of the season for the Kings, who were coming off a 4-3 overtime win against Minnesota on Monday.

  “There’s obviously still room in a bunch of areas we can improve on and play better, but at the end of the day we’ll take the point,” said Anze Kopitar, who became the first Kings center to reach 82 points since Wayne Gretzky in 1993.

  In Tuesday’s other games, it was:

  ‧ Panthers 7, Senators 2

  ‧ Avalanche 5, Blackhawks 1

  ‧ Golden Knights 4, Canucks 1

  ‧ Sharks 6, Devils 2
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