DETROIT – Jonathan Bernier stopped the first 43 shots fired at him on Saturday and a career-high 50 through regulation.
Then, wouldn’t you know it, Jamie Benn scored on the first shot of overtime to lift the Dallas Stars past the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 at Little Caesars Arena.
Such is the nature of three-on-three OT, when turnovers more often than not lead to odd-man rushes, resulting in quality scoring chances.
Still, the Red Wings had no business being in overtime after Dallas tilted the rink during the first two periods and held a 51-17 edge in shots after 60 minutes.
Bernier stole a point for his team.
“That’s my job, to stop pucks, and it’s tough to come out and have a performance like this and not win,” Bernier said.
Filip Hronek gave away the puck to Benn in the neutral zone. Benn carried into the Detroit end on a two-on-one and whipped a shot past Bernier at the 32-second mark.
“Benn made a nice play,” Bernier said. “He looked pass the whole way. I think (Hronek) was sliding down, so he took that away, and (Benn) was still trying to find a passing lane but at the last second, he shot it. He made a nice shot. I felt like it hit my blocker, so I wasn’t sure it went in.”
Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said: “You get into overtime and it’s always bitter when you lose, especially when you give up a chance like that. We got to execute better than that in that situation.”
It gave the Stars (20-15-12) a much-needed extra point as they closed to within two points of Nashville, with two games in hand, for the final playoff spot in the Central Division.
The Red Wings (17-25-8) were hoping to play spoilers again, after defeating the Stars 7-3 on Thursday. They gained three out of a possible four points despite being outshout a combined 98-40 in the two games.
Dennis Cholowski scored for Detroit at 16:17 of the first period, whipping a wrist shot off the rush past Anton Khudobin.
“I thought the first period was fine; the second period they were in our end the whole period,” Blashill said. “We couldn’t get the puck out of our end, couldn’t get the puck in their end in the neutral zone, so we just kept defending over and over again. I didn’t think we gave up a whole bunch of elite chances like the other night in Dallas (Tuesday), but you can’t get leaned on that long. We just got leaned on and leaned on.”
They leaned on Bernier to bail them out time and again.
“He swallowed up a lot of pucks, stood his ground against a lot of traffic,” Blashill said. “Obviously, he saved all the ones he was supposed to save. I thought he was excellent.”
It was the first 50-save performance for a Red Wings goalie since Jimmy Howard on Jan. 7, 2010 at Los Angeles. Bernier became the seventh Detroit goalie to record 50 or more saves in a game, joining Howard, Roger Crozier, Jim Rutherford, Glenn Hall, Roy Edwards and Terry Sawchuk.
“I know I’m on my game when I’m at the top of the crease and I see pucks from the point,” Bernier said. “They have some really good D to get the puck through. They were shooting from everywhere tonight.”
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The Link LonkApril 25, 2021 at 05:06PM
https://www.mlive.com/redwings/2021/04/red-wings-jonathan-bernier-tough-game-to-lose.html
Red Wings’ Jonathan Bernier: Tough game to lose - MLive.com
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