DETROIT _ The start was all too familiar. The finish, though, refreshed.
The Detroit Red Wings once again gave up an early goal Friday at Joe Louis Arena, but they responded within minutes and kept going. The end result was a 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders.
Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, Anthony Mantha and Henrik Zetterberg scored as the Wings rallied through the first two periods to grab a 4-3 lead. Frans Nielsen did not return after the second period because of an upper-body injury. Petr Mrazek continued to see more shots than his opponent, topping 30 early in the third period. The Wings got a power play _ only the second of the game for them, compared to five for the Islanders the first two periods _ with six minutes to play in regulation, but both Thomas Vanek and Gustav Nyquist were denied.
Jason Chimera scored with 2:26 left in regulation when he got to a puck before Helm could clear it, right by the left post. Danny DeKeyser replied with 27.9 seconds left when his shot deflected in.
The opening shift saw Nielsen's line send two quick shots on net, a good response given the incredibly poor start the last game. But it was still the same old tune as the Islanders scored at 3:14 when Josh Bailey finished a three-on-one. Nyquist had a grade A chance to equalize when he got the puck in the offensive zone but his shot sank into Greiss.
Given how the last two games had gone, it was huge, then, for the Wings that they did score midway through the first period, when Glendening deflected Jonathan Ericsson's shot from the blue line. And yet the next thing that happened was entirely too familiar, too, as the Isles immediately retook the lead when Andrew Ladd fired a shot through traffic that went short-side on Mrazek.
Back-to-back penalties _ one a ticky-tacky interference call on Niklas Kronwall left the Wings short-handed much of the last five minutes. Helm did force a breakaway, but couldn't generate much of a shot. Mrazek made a handful of saves during the penalty stretch, 13 for the period.
The Wings generated good offensive zone time to start the period but had a devil of a time landing a shot on net. Mrazek was busier, making saves and playing the puck behind his net. Zetterberg's line had possession an entire shift but could not get the puck on net.
The reward came when Helm one-timed a nice feed from Tomas Tatar, evening the score at the 12-minute mark. The Wings feed off the momentum with another goal two minutes later. Mantha poked the puck to get it down low to Tatar, then raced to the right side to score.
The Wings went on a fifth penalty kill soon after, because of a goalie interference call on Nielsen. It was the second penalty of the night on Nielsen, who had six penalty minutes total going into the game. John Tavares converted, but Zetterberg connected on a nice pass from Nyquist to make it 4-3.
