Red Wings-Blue Jackets wrap-up: Call it lucky, call it resilient, a win is a win

The Detroit Red Wings played resilient hockey on Thursday night, taking a 5-4 decision over the Columbus Blue Jackets, earning the team’s 3rd straight win in the process.

Columbus and the Blue Jackets actually had an excellent game against the Wings, sweeping away 3-1 and 4-3 deficits, but Detroit dug deeper, and with Saturday’s barometer game against the Mighty Winnipeg Jets on the horizon, the Red Wings displayed the kind of resolve necessary to play against teams that can match, if not exceed their skill sets.

How often do you see a failed goal challenge result in this?

On Thursday night, the Red Wings were resilient and hard-working enough to overcome both the Blue Jackets’ efforts and their own mistakes, and the final goal left the Blue Jackets particularly deflated, as they told the Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger:

Detroit’s Ben Chiarot blocked Ivan Provorov’s one timer from the right circle with the Jackets’ power play expiring, which created a loose puck near the Red Wings’ blue line with Jonatan Berggren preparing to exit the penalty box. Former Blue Jackets forward Tyler Motte dove to send him a pass for a late breakaway and Berggren beat Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins with 35.7 seconds left to give the Red Wings (16-18-4) a wild win.

“I would love to be sitting here at least with a point and having the opportunity (to win in overtime), but … we made a mistake, right, at the end?” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “We should get out of (the offensive zone), but our group’s trying to score … but we make a mistake at the end.”

A couple minutes earlier, the Blue Jackets (16-17-6) owned every ounce of momentum after James van Riemsdyk’s second goal of the night tied it 4-4 with 2:41 to play. Red Wings coach Todd McLellan challenged for goaltender interference, which failed to give Columbus a chance to win on a power play without needing overtime.

“We tie it up, we get a power play, and we talked about getting (a goal) on it, obviously,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “We didn’t want it to go to overtime. Our (top) unit didn’t do a good job of getting it in the (offensive) zone, and that’s frustrating for our group that’s been really good at home this year. It’s on us, as well, for not giving us that chance (to win). This game’s crazy. It can take weird bounces and change on a dime.”

Werenski continued while speaking with The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline…

“We’d like to get it to overtime there,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “It’s an unfortunate bounce. Stuff like that happens in the game. It’s definitely tough.”

The Red Wings led 3-1 after the first period and 4-3 for much of the third, but the game appeared to turn with 2:51 remaining when Columbus’ James van Riemsdyk scored his second goal of the game to pull the Blue Jackets into a 4-4 tie.

Detroit coach Todd McLellan asked for a review of the goal, as van Riemsdyk was clear in the Red Wings’ crease, towering above goaltender Cam Talbot when he scored off a rebound from an Adam Fantilli shot. After a review, the goal was allowed to stand, which led to McLellan being charged for a delay of game penalty.

By losing the challenge, though, the Red Wings won the game. [Coach Dean] Evason had forwards Cole Sillinger, Zach Aston-Reese and Mathieu Olivier and defensemen Ivan Provorov and Denton Mateychuk on the ice for the final minute of the power play, and they were pressing hard to score the go-ahead goal.

Provorov’s shot from above the right circle struck Ben Chiarot and kicked hard up the middle of the ice as the penalty box door swung open for Berggren. Former Blue Jackets forward Tyler Motte dived to push the puck forward, springing Berggren for the breakaway as Mateychuk gave chase.

Berggren’s shot glanced off Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins’ glove before finding the net.

“It sucks,” Fantilli said. “It deflects off the guy’s pants and goes right up the middle. A few degrees different on that shot and we’re in a different situation. That’s hockey, though. Bounces happen. That’s the way the game went.”

Coach Evason growled about the situational awareness of his team, or the lack thereof…

“I’d love to be sitting here with at least a point and the opportunity (to win in overtime or shootout),” Evason said. “We made a mistake, right? We should get out of there. It’s clock awareness. It’s recognizing where we are in the game. And just get out of there. And we didn’t. We make a mistake. It ended up in our net, unfortunately. It could have gone the other way.”

NHL.com’s Craig Merz found that Werenski believed that Columbus should have prevailed, if they’d only played a little smarter…

Van Riemsdyk had two goals and an assist, Zach Werenski scored and had two assists to extend his home point streak to 14 games, and Sean Monahan scored for the Blue Jackets (16-17-6), who had won three of four. Elvis Merzlikins made 21 saves.

“There’s a lot of stuff we could have done better to put ourselves in a position to not have it come down to the end like that,” Werenski said. “I think if we start better, get to our game better, it’s probably a different story at the end. I think that’s the main thing — playing the full 60 minutes — and I don’t think we did that tonight.”

But instead, the Red Wings had luck on their side:

“Ben (Chiarot) made a huge block and then it landed perfect on Motte’s stick. He saw me and I tried to score,” Berggren said. “When you’re sitting in the penalty box you kind of hope it comes like that. This time it was lucky.”

Alex DeBrincat had a goal and two assists, Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin each had a goal and an assist, and Erik Gustafsson scored for the Red Wings (16-18-4), who have won three straight following a four-game skid. Cam Talbot made 21 saves.

“The finish is what we were looking for, not necessarily the road map we had to get there, but we said we’d find out a little bit about our team,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “Found out that there’s some resiliency in the group.”

This is also a very notable development:

DeBrincat said there is a positive vibe since McLellan was named coach on Dec. 26.

“I think there’s no quit,” DeBrincat said. “We give up that late goal, and our PK does a great job, and obviously [Berggren] scores after that. We’re not getting down on the bench when we have a momentum swing. We just keep working to get that momentum back and it’s been going well for us.”

Coach McLellan didn’t regret challenging the van Riemsdyk 4-4 goal, as he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan, but he took responsibility for getting the call wrong…

“From the angle we saw, and we don’t get much time, it was van Riemsdyk went into the blue paint on his own and we didn’t feel Talbs could get across to make the play,” McLellan said. “We give everybody an opportunity to chime in and we have to decide in a fraction of a second (whether to challenge). That decision was mine and it wasn’t anybody else’s. It was on the head coach and I was on the wrong end of it. We’re asking our team to be aggressive and there was a gamble aspect. But we also have confidence in our penalty killers and they came through for us. We are playing to win and we’ll be aggressive when we need to be.”

Again, DeBrincat spoke positively regarding the atmosphere surrounding the Wings’ efforts…

“There’s no quit,” said DeBrincat, who added two assists along with his goal. “We give up that late goal and our PK does a great job and Bergy scores after that. We just keep working to get that momentum back and it’s been going well for us.”

The one negative for the Wings was the loss of defenseman Jeff Petry early in the third period with an injury. Petry played 17:17 but missed most of the third period. McLellan had no update after the game.

So far, so good, injury to Petry aside:

“Every time, the guys passed the test and we found a way to get the win,” McLellan said.

McLellan also gave full credit to his players for an “assist,” as Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson noted:

“Sometimes we’re out there to help the team, and sometimes the team helps the coaching staff,” McLellan said. “We made some mistakes tonight as a staff and the players bailed us out. So it’s a real good sign.”

VanRiemsdyk scored the game’s first goal, But the Red Wings scored the next three, taking a 3-1 lead after the first period.

“There was a lot of energy, especially in the start, and the feeling in both games and practice has been really good so far,” Berggren said. “But we need to keep doing the right things.”

Patrick Kane, Eric Gustafsson (his first as a Red Wing) and Alex DeBrincat scored in the period.

“We’re not getting down on the bench when we have a momentum swing,” DeBrincat said. “We just keep working to get that momentum back. And it’s been going well for us.”

Update: Of note from DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills’ recap:

McLellan on the coach’s challenge late in the third period: “From the angle that we saw, obviously we don’t have much time, we thought that, I think it was van Riemsdyk went into the blue paint on his own. His feet were in there. We didn’t feel Talbs could get across to make the play. Obviously, Justin had made some contact but we thought he entered there on his own.”

DeBrincat on facing the Jets: “It’s big. Anytime you’re going against the best, it’s a good test for you. Obviously, being on the road is a whole new challenge. I think we just got to have the same starts, really focus on that and we can go on from there, really grind them down.”

Berggren on playing a little more freely: “When I have the puck, I don’t think like I can make a mistake here. I just think about seeing the plays and how I make the plays instead of how I lose the puck. Just think about producing, and I think that’s the biggest thing right now.”

Multimedia:

Highlights: NHL.com posted a 10:11 highlight clip…

And Sportsnet posted a 10:21 highlight clip:

Post-game: The Blue Jackets posted a combined clip of post-game comments from Zach Werenski, James van Riemsdyk, Adam Fantilli and coach Dean Evason: