The Red Wings go into tonight’s game having being recently eliminated from the playoffs and hoping to hinder the chances of Toronto making it too. If we can’t go neither can you!

The disadvantage of watching a game at 9am in the morning is it has the potential to ruin your day, but I can honestly say this game was by far one of the best I have seen this season.

Detroit was more physical team in the first period with 12 hits and Niklas Kronwall ‘Kronwalling’ William Nylander. The Red Wings got their first power play of the game when Tyler Bozak got a double minor for high sticking Nick Jensen. 1 minute 20 into the power play Gustav Nyquist got called for slashing Morgan Rielly after Rielly took evidence of the broken stick and waved it in front of the Ref. The power play and 4-on-4 would go scoreless for both teams. Nyquist got the first goal of the game wristing the puck over Andersen giving Detroit a 1-nothing lead.

Auston Matthews scores his 37th goal of the season at 2.56 in the second while the Maple Leafs are on a power play. Riley Sheahan then had a quality scoring chance (if he scores it could be April Fools day miracle?). With the Wings having some good quality chances they are unable to burry the puck. After Andreas Athanasiou was hit with a high stick that sent him off the ice to  the locker room, the Maple Leafs completed a play that had been tried several times this game where a forward waits near the Red Wings blue line for someone to shoot the puck down ice to create a breakaway, this play allowed Mitch Marner to get his 18th goal of the season. The next goal would also come from a Maple Leafs rookie Nylander putting the Leafs up 3-1 but Jensen would cut the lead getting his own rebound and sending it past Frederik Andersen. The period would end 3-2.

The third started with Jimmy Howard turning it over to Marner behind the net almost allowing him to score his second of the game. Kronwall tied the game with 5.19 left in the third but the Leafs responded with two goals scored within a minute of each other. The outcome looked pretty bleak with the Maple Leafs leading 5-3 with a minute left in the game, however the Wings didn’t want to be counted out too soon. Howard was pulled and Mike Green off a pass from Dylan Larkin scored with 45 seconds left. The Wings couldn’t find the back of the net again before the final buzzer losing 5-4 in a much needed Toronto win.

Both teams were evenly matched through the first two periods, however the Red Wings would dominate most of the third. The domination wouldn’t correlate into a win.

Henrik Zetterberg is tonight’s MVP. Zetterberg scored two assists, getting 5 shots and allowed Detroit to be able to stay in this game.

The Ottawa Senators will be coming to the Joe Louis Arena hoping to score a needed 2 points to stay in the playoff conversation. Game time is 7.00pm ET and can be watched on FS-D, RDS2, TSN5. Brock Seguin will have your GameDay Preview on Monday.