The Detroit Red Wings have been out of the playoff conversation for weeks, lately just trying to avoid freefalling.
They can still do damage to teams competing for postseason positioning, like they did Tuesday, or to a club desperately trying to remain in the chase, as they did Wednesday.
The Red Wings completed a difficult back-to-back sweep by beating the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 at Canada Life Centre.
“Every back-to-back is not the same … and this is a more difficult one for sure,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “But you got to find a way if you want to be a good player to be effective in these types of games.”
Thomas Greiss made 32 saves for his first win since Feb. 17. He stopped all 13 shots in the first period, when his team, which defeated Boston 5-3 in a tough battle the night before, didn’t have its legs.
The Red Wings were much stronger in the final two periods. Sam Gagner scored shorthanded late in the first period, his 500th point, and scored into an empty net in the final minute. Michael Rasmussen snapped a 1-1 tie at 9:11 of the third period with his fourth goal in five games.
“Someone’s got to kind of grab it and Greisser grabbed it early, and I thought as it went along a number of guys grabbed it,” Blashill said.
“It was an emotional game. This can be a real hard building to play in and I thought we did a decent job of taking the energy out of the building. … That’s what you have to do on the road. You have to try to make it a boring game and find a way to win and we did that.”
The Red Wings (28-34-9) have won consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 9-12. They damaged the Jets’ fading playoff hopes – Winnipeg is seven points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
The Red Wings aren’t motivated by playing spoiler, they want to salvage something from a season that went off the rails after they were flirting with .500 through mid-February.
“I think everyone collectively was just frustrated with how things were going, and I think as a group we decided to collectively get our heads down and work harder and try to come up with some results,” Rasmussen said. “I think the past two games have been good for us and … top to bottom, everyone has had great efforts.”
Blashill said some players have raised their urgency and sacrifice levels.
“I think we were in a rut where we were just kind of playing games,” he said. “That’s not to say the guys weren’t working hard. I thought they were working hard. It wasn’t that same level of sacrifice and compete and work that you have to have when you’re trying to earn a playoff spot. I think through large parts of the year we had that, and I think we lost it for a stretch.
“I understand we’re not going to earn that spot, but we got to play like we’re going to. I think we’ve done a better job of that here lately with that level of sacrifice. I think a lot of guys and probably specifically some young guys have really raised their game.”
More: Red Wings record rare back-to-back wins
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