Athanasiou scores twice in Red Wings win against Rangers

NEW YORK -- Andreas Athanasiou scored two goals for the second straight game, and the Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers 3-2 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

The Red Wings (26-37-10), who were eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention last week, have won back-to-back games for the first time since Feb. 12-14. They also defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 on Saturday.
Jimmy Howard made 41 saves to improve to 10-3-3 in 17 career appearances against the Rangers. Frans Nielsen also scored for Detroit.
WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Rangers highlights]
Forward Taro Hirose, playing in his first NHL game after signing as a free agent out of Michigan State University last week, had an assist on Nielsen's goal for his first NHL point.
"Nobody in the locker room wants to be in this spot a year from now," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "Well, to do that you've got to get better. There's not instant help coming from the outside generally in this league. It comes from within. What wins do is they give you a little bit of confidence, which helps you play your best, which helps you in turn get better."
Athanasiou has five goals in the past four games, giving him 28 this season. Dylan Larkin has 27 goals. The Red Wings haven't had a 30-goal scorer since 2008-09, when Marian Hossa (40), Johan Franzen (34), Pavel Datsyuk (32) and Henrik Zetterberg (31) all did it.
"His consistency in his engagement has been much better I think than previous years, and I think from Day 1 of camp he was that way," Blashill said of Athanasiou. "When he's engaged he's a really good player. What does engaged mean? Stopping on pucks, winning puck battles, doing those types of things. I think he's done that on a more consistent basis this year than a year ago."

Ryan Strome and Brendan Smith scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves for the Rangers (28-32-13), who have lost five in a row (0-4-1), including the past four in regulation, and are 1-6-5 since Feb. 24.
"When we do execute our game plan, we're close," Lundqvist said. "It is a game of mistakes and it has been costing us a little bit, but I think the approach is pretty good. But in the end, you look at the losses we have, who is beating us, it's usually their top guys. They're coming with the big plays. … But I think we work really hard and you can't ask for anything more than that type of mindset going in, leave everything out there and we'll see if we can get that win in the next one."
Nielsen gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 17:16 of the first period when he gained inside position on John Gilmour through the left circle and scored with a wrist shot to the short side.

Athanasiou extended Detroit's lead to 2-0 at 4:30 of the second period, scoring on a one-timer off a 2-on-1 with Jacob de la Rose.
Strome cut it to 2-1 at 14:46 of the third period, scoring a power-play goal from the right post on a rebound.
Athanasiou scored into an empty net at 19:06 for a 3-1 lead, but Smith made it 3-2 at 19:50.

De la Rose did not play in the third period because he was diagnosed with an accelerated heartbeat. He was taken to the hospital, where he will spend the night, Blashill said. The Red Wings were flying to St. Louis after the game.
Blashill said de la Rose is expected to fly to Detroit on Wednesday to see a specialist. Russ Baumann, the Red Wings assistant athletic trainer, went to the hospital with de la Rose and will also travel to Detroit with him.
"I think it's all precautionary now, but he'll go back, see a specialist and make sure," Blashill said.

They said it

"[Winning] matters now because you've got to do things right now leading yourself into the summer, and then have a good summer to come back into camp feeling good about yourself. For us, it's going out there and doing things right and playing with pride." -- Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard
"For the most part I think we played a pretty good game. Good energy. Good skating. Physical. Maybe we could have gotten in front a little bit more and made it tougher for Howard, but they defended well, packed it in and made it hard for us to create chances." -- Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist

Need to know

Lundqvist played his 50,000th career minute, becoming the 11th goalie in NHL history to play at least 50,000 and the third to do so with one team, joining Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils) and Tony Esposito (Chicago Blackhawks). … Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk had an assist in his 600th NHL game. … Rangers forward Vinni Lettieri had two shots and three hits in 13:02 in his first game since Feb. 8. … Gilmour blocked four shots in 18:43 in his season debut. … Athanasiou has six points (four goals, two assists) in three games against the Rangers this season.

What's next

Red Wings: At the St. Louis Blues on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Rangers: At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN1, SNO, MSG, NHL.TV)