Trending: Red Wings skewer Sabres, 5-4, in overtime

BUFFALO -- It wasn't easy for the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.
Twice the Wings squandered two-goal leads, but in the end, the perseverance of the young Wings prevailed as Detroit defeated Buffalo, 5-4, in overtime.

It was a historic night for Michigan native Dylan Larkin, who broke a 2-2 tie with two third-period goals, but the Sabres scored two goals 41 seconds apart to knot the score at 4-4 and send the game into overtime.
Larkin's second goal in the third was his 30th of the season, making him the first Red Wings player to reach 30 goals since 2008-09, when four Red Wings -- Marian Hossa (40), Johan Franzen (34), Pavel Datsyuk (32) and Henrik Zetterberg (31) -- achieved the milestone.
Tyler Bertuzzi also lit the lamp twice for the Wings, including the game-winning goal at 2:18 in OT.
Rookie defenseman Filip Hronek also scored for the Red Wings, his fourth goal of the campaign. Anthony Mantha chipped in with three assists.

Kyle Okposo (power play), Marco Scandella, Casey Mittelstadt and Jack Eichel scored for Buffalo.
The win was the Red Wings' third in a row and fifth in their last six games. Detroit improved to 29-38-10, while the Sabres fell to 31-36-10.
Up next, the Red Wings will play the second game of back-to-back contests as they host the New Jersey Devils at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night.
Buffalo's next action is Saturday as they travel to New York to face the New York Islanders.

1.Dylan Larkin: Larkin is without question the heart and soul of the Red Wings. His inner drive and compete level is second-to-none. He fired a season-high 12 shots on goal on Sabres netminder Linus Ullmark, beating him twice in the third period to give the Wings a short-lived two-goal lead. His 30 goals are a new career high, but the most important thing to the team-first forward is that the Red Wings won the game.
Quotable:"I think through contract negotiations, end of last couple years, people said I wasn't a goal scorer but I tried to focus on it this summer and I set a goal before every season to try and get to 30. I think every player does and should. It is bittersweet because of the situation we're in now but it does feel pretty good that hard work pays off and to prove to people, I guess, that I can be a goal scorer in this league. Any player wants to score goals. It's one of the greatest joys of this game and you want to score goals, you want to have the puck on your stick and make plays. I've been playing with great players all year and it feels pretty good, I guess, in a season where not much has felt great this year." - Larkin

Quotable II:"One thing for certain is he wants to win. Winning is most important to him for sure. When one of your best players, or probably our best player on a night-to-night basis, cares about winning equal to that of his own success, you've got a chance to have real special things happen. I think that's why I say a lot of times he's been our engine. He's the guy who drives us lots of nights, because he wants to win that bad. He's not perfect. There's growth there. He and I have lots of conversations and he's still growing as a leader and as a player, but that's the exciting thing. His inner drive and his will to win is what separates him." - Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Tyler Bertuzzi: Always willing to pay the price to score the greasy goal by going to the front of the net, Bertuzzi was mired in a nine-game scoring drought until he converted on the power play at 12:02 of the first to give the Wings a 1-0 lead. Bertuzzi, camped in front of Ullmark, redirected a perfect pass from Mantha to beat the Sabres netminder, who had little chance to make the save. The goal was set up by the Red Wings' deft passing with Niklas Kronwall feeding a cross-ice pass to Mantha, who quickly sent the puck to a wide open Bertuzzi. It was a nifty play by the Wings and a just reward for a player who plays with reckless abandon on every shift. His second goal of the game was the game-winner in overtime with Danny DeKeyser and Taro Hirose drawing the assists. In 68 games, Bertuzzi has 18 goals among his 38 points and is plus-7.

Quotable:"At the start, it was kind of around 15 (goals this season) and obviously now it's 20. But not really, I just go with the flow and try and produce and try and get wins. I went through it, I think it was 15 games (without a goal) at the start of the season. Just stick with it, eventually it's going to go in. Tonight, Mo (Mantha) made a nice pass and then obviously DK (DeKeyser) made a nice pass backdoor there and it felt good." - Bertuzzi
Quotable II:"We're dropping like flies a little bit and guys keep on showing up and working hard. What I like is I thought we lost our way a little bit after the trade deadline. I didn't see the same sacrifice night to night and urgency and compete that I think is needed to move this organization forward. You're not going to win every night. If you win or lose, you need to make sure you're moving the organization in the right direction. I think over the last 5-6 games, we've done that. We've competed, we've sacrificed, we've done the things it takes. Guys are growing in the positions they're in. They're not perfect, but they're getting better. That's the biggest key for us, that we're moving towards a better tomorrow." - Blashill

3.Anthony Mantha:After Thursday's morning skate, Mantha told reporters he was determined to finish the season playing his best hockey. Against the Sabres, the 6-foot-5 power forward's array of skill was on full display. He received the primary assist on Detroit's first two goals by sending tape-to-tape passes to Bertuzzi for an easy redirect and a cross-ice dagger to Hronek, who fired a rocket into the Buffalo net. Since he is such a proficient sniper, Mantha's passing ability sometimes flies under the radar. In 62 games this season, the forward has 19 goals and 20 assists for 39 points.
Quotable:"I think good players make good plays and he's a good player in this league. He's shown that, whether it's like what I talked about, not being a goal scorer, people saying, and finding ways to produce offense and playing with good players, playing with the puck and playing with confidence. He's shown that a lot this year and I think you look at all three of us tonight on our line (Larkin, Bertuzzi and Mantha) we're moving it around. It was clicking tonight and it's great to see. He plays hard. He's in the game every night. When I know that we're going to have a good night is when I look up and I see him ahead of me on the forecheck and he's a big body and he's moving. He can really dominate this league when he's skating. An underrated part of his game is his skating ability and he can fly. When he's moving and he's ahead of me, I know we're going to have the puck a lot because he's tough to defend when he's forechecking. You can't stop him coming in with his long stick." - Larkin
Quotable II:"We're just keeping it simple and just kind of cycling it down low. I go to the net front and they kind of work it around and Mo's a big body. We're jelling when we're switching back and cutting back and making little plays. We played pretty well tonight." - Bertuzzi

4. Jonathan Ericsson:Already without the services of veteran defensemen Mike Green (virus) and Trevor Daley (back), blueliner Jonathan Ericsson left Thursday's game in the first period with a lower-body injury after logging just 4:38 of ice time. At this point, he's listed as day-to-day until he can be evaluated in Detroit on Friday. Ericsson is no stranger to injury this season. He has missed 21 games with various injuries, most recently with an injured knee, missing five games from March 12-23. If Ericsson is out for an extended period, the Red Wings will call up a defenseman from Grand Rapids under emergency conditions. In 52 games this season, Ericsson has five points, including three goals, is minus-10 with an average ice time of 17:27 per game. The Wings could also be without Frans Nielsen, who took a hard check along the boards in the third period and did not return to the game.
   Quotable:"I don't know that answer. I'll know more on Frans tomorrow. I'll know more on Big E tomorrow. Those answers I'll have to answer for you tomorrow. We'd have to use another emergency. We'll revisit that all tomorrow. As we get home there, we'll see how guys feel. Big E's going to see how he feels tomorrow morning and we'll know more tomorrow." - Blashill