After a disheartening loss last night to the New York Rangers, Detroit looks to bounce back tonight.

For those of you who are fans of my gif-themed recaps, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I will have few to zero of those tonight. I’m pulling double duty, both running the WIIM twitter and writing the recap, and I don’t think I can pull of the gifs this evening.

One thing we all hope Detroit can pull off is a regulation win after squandering the extra point last night. Let’s see what happens.

First Period

We have a battle of the backups with Petr Mrazek up against Keith Kinkaid.

34 seconds into the game, David Booth tips a Ouellet point shot by Kinkaid!! With a helmet on, he looks like a much better looking brunet Carrot Top, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s a good way to start the game.

New Jersey tries to get some offense going the other way, but they commit an icing.

Larkin made a nice play to get it to Mantha for a chance, but he and Nyquist couldn’t turn it into a goal.

At the first commercial break, Detroit and New Jersey are playing pretty evenly so far, but Detroit has the 1-0 lead.

Mrazek bails out the Detroit defense as they allow Jesper Bratt a chance in all alone! Really poor read there by the Red Wings defense, but an amazing save by Mrazek.

Zetterberg passes up a good shot to pass it to Athanasiou. He should have shot it there.

Jeez. Boyle re-directed a floated shot into the slot by Mrazek. Petr had zero chance on this one. The original shot was going way wide and the Detroit goalie started to react to it, but Boyle deflected it several feet off course into the net.

Justin Abdelkader takes a two minute minor for slashing. New Jersey goes to the power play against the 4th ranked Detroit penalty kill.

Taylor Hall scores early on the NJ power play. Mrazek looked to be screened, and it was a laser shot. I have a hard time blaming Petr for this one.

It was a real goal scorer’s goal. You know, the kind you expect a real elite scoring winger to score. You know what I mean, Peter Chiarelli.

Hischier rips a shot on goal, and Mrazek blocks it away.

Detroit started off well, but New Jersey has started to take over this game. Detroit can definitely get back into it, but they have to keep working hard.

Blake Coleman nearly followed up his own rebound but he hit the post. Compared to last year, Mrazek looks more economical in his movement. Last year he would flail around when out of position, but he looks more confident in his movement this year.

At the end of the first, New Jersey leads 2-1. Like I said at the top, I’m also running the WIIM Twitter, and I can probably make this joke once before it gets old, so I’ll put it in here too:

Second Period

Let’s do that hockey!

I missed the first few minutes, but it seems like the Devils are icing the puck so much that their coach says they could start a bakery.

Helm breaks in on goal and probably should have shot, but he fed it to Abdelkader for the 40 foot one-timer that Kinkaid saves.

Mantha took a return pass from Nielsen that was slick but couldn’t create a chance on goal. So far the second period hasn’t featured too many chances.

As soon as I write that, Mrazek comes up big on Taylor Hall on a near-breakaway.

Mantha to Tatar in the slot for a top notch chance, but it’s still 2-1. I should write that the game is a little boring more often.

Detroit takes a penalty. Nick Jensen for delay of game. Larkin breaks shorthanded with Luke Glendening, but Larkin can’t convert.

Detroit kills the Devils second power play of the night and the score remains 2-1.

I said up top that I don’t have the time to do my usual gifs, so I will include one image. It’s my new adopted dog Bowie hanging out with me tonight for the game:

Helm nearly ties the game up with 3:33 left in the second period. Jensen set him up, but Kinkaid kept it out off his mask.

Helm nearly makes it 2-2 with 30 seconds left in the period. He’s had some nice chances so far.

Miles Wood takes a penalty for holding, and Detroit goes to the power play.

Detroit can’t score in the last 15 seconds of the period, but they’ll have most of a power play in the third period.

Third Period

Larkin to Athanasiou on the power play, and I think with their combined speed if they could have added 1.21 gigawatts, they could have time-travelled.

Detroit doesn’t really get a good chance on the power play, and it’s still 2-1.

Henrique runs into Petr Mrazek. The puck goes in after, but it’s no goal, and Detroit goes to the power play.

Lovejoy takes Zetterberg down, but no second call. Looked pretty egregious at first, but on the replay it was tough to tell if Z went down a little easy.

AA and Larkin had a pair of devious passes, but Athanasiou couldn’t put the eventual shot past Kinkaid.

Hischier scores to make it 3-1. Detroit really didn’t do much to stop him.

(Full disclosure: At this point, the text editor crashed. I had a lot more written, but I’m going to have to summarize from memory.

Mantha scores on a beautiful shot on a break with Larkin to make it 3-2.

Booth scores to make it 3-3! He pounces on a loose puck in the slot, then leaps against the glass behind the goal.

At some point in here, Mrazek came out due to the concussion protocol. He should have been pulled earlier for this, but at least they did take him out.

At this point, I missed a whole bunch trying to reload the text editor. So there are 2 minutes left in the third! And it’s still 3-3.

We go to OT still tied 3-3.

Overtime

Henrique with a quick turnaround shot that looks like it might end it, but Howard keeps it going with a save.

Mantha sets up Athanasiou, but he fans on the one-timer. Hischier likely saved the game on a play to break up the puck from a Nyquist carry. Then Larkin had a great chance to end it, but nope.

The Red Wings had the better of the chances in OT, but Brian Gibbons stole the puck in Detroit’s end and beat Jimmy Howard to send the home team fans out of the building sad again in OT.

4-3 Devils in OT.