By Stefan Kubus –
DETROIT – The Red Wings’ game against St. Louis Monday night was one that they want to erase from the memory banks as soon as possible.
Led by Alexander Steen’s two assists and Barret Jackman’s game-winner, the 33-10-15 Blues dominated Detroit at Joe Louis Arena, 4-1, outshooting them 39-23 in the process and winning the majority of the puck battles. Gustav Nyquist scored the lone goal – a power-play marker – for the Red Wings, who fell to 21-18-10 on the season.
“Obviously, we bring the stuff that was good from every game and try to change what was bad,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “I think today is a game that we’ve just got to flush. We’ve just got to come in tomorrow and regroup for Wednesday.”
Head coach Mike Babcock concurred with his captain, saying the team can’t expect to win when so many puck battles are lost.
“They were better than us. I don’t know what part’s us and what part’s them. They were on us, they were heavy. We never got anything sustained.”
The Red Wings lost Jimmy Howard halfway through the game due to some sort of injury that appeared to involved the same knee that caused him to miss eight games in December. Babcock said there was no update on his status after the game and should be considered day-to-day for now.
Magnus Paajarvi’s fourth of the season started the scoring off, as he banked a shot off Howard’s backside from behind the net and in with 8:46 remaining in the opening period. Much to the Blues’ pleasure no doubt, St. Louis was 27-1-3 when scoring first this season.
With 51.1 seconds to play, Blues defenseman Roman Polak took a minor penalty that set Detroit up with a power play. Nyquist took a great cross-crease pass, bobbled it on the shot, but persistently followed his own rebound to tie things up at one apiece.
Blues captain David Backes took a minor penalty with 13.1 seconds left in the opening period to give Detroit 1:46 of PP time to begin the second stanza.
Tomas Jurco’s early second-period penalty made it 4-on-4 and with Backes screening in front, Jackman’s bomb from the point at 1:01 put St. Louis up 2-1. Jackman is a former Calder Trophy winner who actually beat out Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg back in the 2002-03 campaign.
With Jurco still in the sin bin, U.S. NTDP alum Kevin Shattenkirk’s power-play goal extended the St. Louis lead to 3-1 at 2:21 of the middle frame.
Detroit did have 1:27 of 5-on-3 time later in the period, but it ultimately proved fruitless.
Then, with 9:16 remaining in the second period, Petr Mrazek replaced Howard. Shortly after it was announced that Howard would not return with a lower-body injury.
At 2:16 of the third period, Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester’s point shot went off Riley Sheahan in front and deflected past Mrazek to cap off the victory at 4-1.
For Detroit, it was the 26th time in 49 games that they’ve scored two goals or fewer.
“Obviously, it wasn’t good enough on our side,” Zetterberg said. “Still we had 1-1 after the first. Had some good looks on the 5-on-3 there, but couldn’t really get it going. In the third, obviously, their fourth goal kind of ended the game tonight.”
Detroit next faces off against Chicago – league’s second-best record of 32-8-11 (75 pts.) – on Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Notes: Ann Arbor native, U.S. NTDP alum and Blues defenseman Ian Cole was a healthy scratch for the Blues.