The Wings won the season series 2-1 but failed to collect any points in their last game before the break, falling to 24-26-10.
1. Dylan Larkin: After playing a career low 7:58 Sunday in Pittsburgh, Larkin responded with a strong effort against the Islanders. Larkin tied Xavier Ouellet with a game-high five shots on goal. Larkin looked particularly strong during a 4-on-4 at the start of the third period, creating chances in the offensive zone with his speed. Larkin finished with 16:13 ice time.
Quotable: "I thought this was his best game in a little bit, because of that I was playing him more. The better you play, the more ice time you earn and then you feel good about yourself. What are the keys? Stopping on pucks, stopping on people. Not turning pucks over and then playing with a physicality and a strength in both taking hits and making hits. If he does that, the offense will come. I think lots of times young players just worry about the offense. There's other things in the process to get to the offense. He's got great ability. If he does those things he's going to end up in the O-zone lots and end up on the ice lots because he's earning the coach's trust." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Petr Mrazek: Mrazek has been playing very well of late, often making spectacular saves at just the right time. But at 15:00 of the first period, Mrazek went behind his net to play the puck and ended up passing it right to Islanders forward Josh Bailey, who was able to put the puck in the net before Mrazek could get back.
Quotable: "I was trying to make it. I should wait a little longer and split the difference maybe, or pass it to Kronner (Niklas Kronwall). But nothing I can do about it. I'm making those plays, I'm trying to make those plays a lot and I had a mistake today." - Mrazek
Quotable II: "He fanned on it a little. To be honest, when I was coming down the wall I was trying to give the middle up and then try to take it away. Obviously he fanned on it and it was a bit of a gift for it to land on my stick like that. We had a good chuckle afterwards because Anders (Lee) was trying so hard to get out of the way." - Bailey
3. Fast power-play goal: It happened so fast that the officials had to take a second look at it. At 19:56 of the first period, Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield was called for holding Larkin. Frans Nielsen won the face-off to Thomas Vanek, who passed quickly to Henrik Zetterberg in the right circle. Zetterberg's shot beat Islanders goaltender Thomas Greiss with .01 left on the clock. Zetterberg said he had never scored a goal with so little time left on the clock. Zetterberg now has 14 goals, one more than he scored in 82 games last season.
Quotable: "It was actually Vanek that made that play. It was kind of like a broken play. Vanek made a nice pass and I was just lucky there was enough time." - Zetterberg
