SAN JOSE, Calif. _ The Detroit Red Wings face their last game on the California trip coming off one of their best performances in weeks, one so good they earned their second shutout of the season.
Their first, incidentally, came against their next opponent, the San Jose Sharks, way back in October, back when the Wings were spinning together a six-game winning streak. They have not been able to match anything close to that success since, as they have see-sawed between performances solid and sloppy. They take on the Sharks on a confident note after shutting down the Los Angeles Kings, 4-0, Thursday, a redemption after wasting Petr Mrazek's performance the night before in a 2-0 loss at Anaheim.
"A lot of it for us, it's scoring," Thomas Vanek said after contributing two goals at L.A. "When you get those early ones, it relaxes everyone and helps us out.
"We have to put a few together so everyone feels good about their game and go from there."
Friday was a scheduled day off for the Wings. The Kings game afforded many Wings a boost of confidence: Vanek, who showed on both of his goals why it pays to go to the net; Frans Nielsen, who intuitively and deftly set up Vanek's first goal; Andreas Athanasiou, who answered a benching with a goal, two assists, and dominating play in both ends; Anthony Mantha, who scored his 10th goal of the season; Jared Coreau, who earned his first NHL shutout in what was his fifth career NHL start.
Credit, too, a young defensive unit that included Nick Jensen, who was playing in his eighth career NHL game, Ryan Sproul (20th), Xavier Ouellet (54) and Alexey Marchenko (103 games, first coming back from shoulder injury). The only veterans on the back end were Jonathan Ericsson and Danny DeKeyser, after injuries this week left Niklas Kronwall and Brendan Smith joining Mike Green in sick bay.
"Marchenko came in and did a real good job for being out I think four weeks," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "Jensen was excellent. Ouellet was great, Ericsson was great, DK _ go down the line, they were all really, really good."
The additions of Marchenko and Sproul made it possible to have each defensive pairings consist of a right-handed shot and a left-handed shot. The defense had a good night in being active with the puck, be it Marchenko jumping up in the play at one point or Jensen making a play at the offensive blue line to push the puck to Tomas Tatar, who made a heads-up pass to Mantha on his goal.
Now comes the challenge: Can the Wings deliver a second straight confidence-inducing performance?
