At the start of a five-game roadtrip, the Detroit Red Wings came into Phoenix facing a team that hadn’t lost in regulation since a November 16 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The team that has only scored 28 goals in the last 14 games proceeded to have their first back-to-back four-goal games since October 27 and 29, beating the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1.
On top of peppering Ilya Bryzgalov with 36 shots, Jimmy Howard made 35 saves on a busy night for him.
Both teams went 1-for-4 on the power play.
In the first period, Brian Rafalski made a cross-ice pass to Nicklas Lidstrom. Lidstrom fired a shot from the blue line that lifted off the ice. Tomas Holmstrom deflect the shot into the net past Bryzgalov for his team-leading 14th goal of the season.
The second period saw Brett Lebda and Darren Helm each go to the penalty box within 42 seconds of each other. Taking advantage of the five-on-three, Robert Lang fired a pass across the crease faster than Howard could get over, and Matthew Lombardi put it in for his seventh.
With 19 seconds left in the period, Pavel Datsuyk set up Lidstrom at the blue-line. For the second time, Holmstrom deflected it for his second of the night.
In the third, with Shane Doan serving two minutes for interference, Todd Bertuzzi passed towards a ready Datsuyk, who quickly put the puck in for his 10th of the season.
Finally, with Bryzgalov pulled in the last 90 seconds, Helm made a pretty bank pass off the boards to himself to get free for an empty netter to seal the game.
The Red Wings will face the Anaheim Ducks Tuesday night.
Player of the game: Tomas Holmstrom. A pair of deflected goals extends his team-lead in goals.
