Trending: Confident Mrazek earns shootout victory, another start

DETROIT -- There may be a shift in the Red Wings goaltending dynamic.
After earning a 2-1 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, coach Jeff Blashill announced that Mrazek would start Friday in Carolina.

The victory snapped a five-game winless skid at home (0-4-1) and helped the Wings improve to 4-1 in shootouts this season and 14-1 in the last 15 shootouts.
The Red Wings are 20-21-8 overall and 11-10-7 at home while the Sharks are 26-16-8 overall and 12-9-5 on the road.
Trevor Daley scored for Detroit and Kevin Labanc scored for San Jose in regulation.
Notably, the Wings had a season-high 44 shots on goal.
1. Petr Mrazek: Mrazek was making his third start in four games for the Wings. He had 37 saves in a shutout of the New Jersey Devils, 28 saves in an overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers and 30 saves against the Sharks. Of those 30 saves, nine were on Sharks defenseman Brent Burns alone. Kevin Labanc ended Mrazek's shutout bid with 4:59 left in the third when his shot from the high slot ended up in the net, tying the game at 1. Although Mrazek gave up shootout goals to Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Chris Tierney, he stopped Labanc, Joonas Donskoi, Burns and Tomas Hertl to earn the victory. In his last four appearances, Mrazek is 3-0-1 with a 1.02 goals-against average and .965 save percentage.
Quotable: "A huge thanks to guys, score four goals in shootout. It wasn't fun for me actually on first two shots when you've got two shots and two goals. The most important thing is the end. The guys score great goals and it was enough for a win." -- Mrazek
Quotable II: "Those are growing pains in the league and I think it's a confidence thing, too. I think he feels real confident right now and I think everyone in this room has seen him when he's at his best, when he's confident like that, he's a really, really good goalie so I just think it's a confidence thing. Some of it, it's not just all on the goalie, it's how you play in front of him. I think there's times we haven't played good enough in front of him and I think lately we've played better in front of him." -- Blashill
Quotable III: "Petr is a goalie when his confidence is going, he's earned that with the way he's played. He sees the puck, he's out of his crease, he moves really well and he can read where the play is going. He's as good of a goalie as any in this league. It's good to see, he's had a bit of a rough stretch, a lot of guys do; it's good to see him dig himself out and bounce back. He's playing as good as he's played." -- Justin Abdelkader
2. Trevor Daley: Sometimes the most innocent-looking shot will be the one that makes it into the net. That's what happened in the third period when Daley drove to the net and backhanded a shot at Sharks goaltender Martin Jones. The puck trickled past Jones and the goalie ended up kicking it back into the net with his right skate. It was Daley's fourth goal of the season and second in his last three games. Daley returned from missing three games with a lower-body injury. He played 29 shifts for 19:01, had four shots on goal, four blocked shots and was plus-1.
Quotable: "I think Niels (Frans Nielsen) gave me a pass break and it was a great pass. I didn't have nothing to shoot at and it just trickled in. I just put in on net and I got lucky. Sometimes good things happen." -- Daley
3. Justin Abdelkader/Darren Helm: Abdelkader and Helm returned after missing six games with lower-body injuries. Abdelkader started on the fourth line with Luke Glendening and Martin Frk but also had some shifts on other lines. Helm started with Nielsen and Tomas Tatar. Both killed penalties. Helm had a clear breakaway at the beginning of the second period but missed the net. Helm finished with 19 shifts for 14:11, 1:12 shorthanded, had three hits, a blocked shot and won 2-of-4 face-offs. Abdelkader was the Wings' final shooter in the seventh round and beat Jones with a backhand shot, his first career shootout attempt. Mrazek's save on Hertl meant Abdelkader's goal was the game-winner. Abdelkader finished with 18 shifts for 13:48, :58 shorthanded, three shots on goal, two hits and one blocked shot.
Quotable: "I wasn't thinking at all on the bench until I got called. I had no idea if I would go or not. Actually, during break a few of us that skated were working on some shootouts so maybe it helped out a little bit, but I saw guys were successful getting Jones moving a bit so I thought I could try and get him to go down and then make my move from there. So fortunately, it went in, he bit on it, but it was a good way for us to find two points here in the first game back." -- Abdelkader
Quotable II: "They're really good players. I think you saw it in a number of areas. Helm must have had four blocked shots, that's winning hockey. Our penalty kill was really good. Obviously Dales scored. They're just good players, makes your lineup better. That doesn't mean when they're not playing that you can't win, you got to find ways to win in this league for sure. But it's good to have them back, they're real good players. I would also say their work ethic guys and for us to win we got to be a work ethic team." -- Blashill