Glendale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) – Tomas Tatar tallied a goal and two assists
to back Petr Mrazek’s solid performance between the pipes in the Detroit Red
Wings’ 3-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
Mrazek, who was coming off a 28-save shutout of Colorado on Thursday, made 22
saves, but none bigger than his stop on Martin Erat’s penalty shot late in
regulation.
Darren Helm had a goal and an assist and Riley Sheahan also scored for the Red
Wings, who have won three straight games and nine of their last 10.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored Arizona’s lone goal and Mike Smith stopped 25
shots in defeat.
After a scoreless first period, Sheahan one-timed Pavel Datsyuk’s feed from
the edge of the right circle for a power-play goal 8:11 into the middle
stanza.
Erat was awarded a penalty shot after being hauled down by Datsyuk on a short-
handed breakaway with 8:22 left in the game. Erat skated up the slot and
wristed a shot, but Mrazek made a blocker save to keep the Coyotes off the
board.
Tatar raced into the Arizona zone on a 2-on-1, took a cross-ice pass from
Helm and finished the sequence with a wrist shot over Smith’s glove for a 2-0
lead with three minutes to play.
The Coyotes responded just over a minute later with the goaltender pulled.
David Moss’ shot was blocked in front, but Ekman-Larsson tracked down the
rebound and sent it past Mrazek for a 2-1 score.
Arizona pulled Smith again, but wasn’t as fortunate as Helm scored on the
vacated net 38 seconds later to seal the win.
Game Notes
Detroit earned its 1,500th victory under the ownership of Mike and Marian
Ilitch, which is more than any other franchise in the NHL since 1982 …
Ekman-Larsson leads all NHL defenseman with 16 goals … The two teams will
meet again on March 24 at Joe Louis Arena.
