It may have taken an extended shootout and it may have come against the worst team in the NHL, but the Detroit Red Wings escaped with a 3-2 shootout victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets for their 16th straight win at Joe Louis Arena. The win extends the new franchise mark—a record that had previously stood for 47 years. Who knew it would take a Valterri Filppula goal in the fourth round of shootout to earn the victory?
Detroit’s head coach Mike Babcock displayed a little clairvoyance when he warned that the game against the Blue Jackets had all the makings of a trap game. The Red Wings had to come back in the second period to tie the game; then they were forced to hold on at the end of regulation while they killed a five-minute major handed down to Henrik Zetterberg for boarding. Still, even without their best effort, they were still able to avoid the upset.
“We haven’t been as efficient as we’d like to be,” Babcock told Ansar Khan at mlive.com, “but we’ve found a way to grind out points.” They’ve been able to grind out enough points to surge to the top of the league with 65 points.
The Red Wings will have an opportunity to extend their record home winning streak when they face off with the red-hot St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. They’ll need a far better effort if they want to the streak to reach 17 games though.