Red Wings squeeze by Ducks on historic night

Win or lose, Friday night was bound to be heavy on history for the Detroit Red Wings.

Tomas Holmstrom and Nicklas Lidstrom reached their milestones for games played, as the polarizing winger hit Game No. 1,000 while Lidstrom tied Alex Delvecchio for second place in Red Wings history with 1,549.

Those individual milestones were cleared on each players’ first shift, but the team’s other brush with history wasn’t settled until Joey MacDonald stopped Bobby Ryan‘s shootout attempt. Detroit inched one win closer to tying the NHL’s all-time record for consecutive wins (20)* with their 19th by barely squeezing by the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 (SO).

The Red Wings have needed extra time to keep the streak alive quite a bit lately. Four of their last seven home wins have come after regulation, with three being determined by a shootout.

More on the 19-game streak

Some purists might try to poke holes in Detroit’s run based on those facts if they get to (or beyond) 20 straight wins at Joe Louis Arena, but it’s an impressive run nonetheless. NHL Network provides some interesting stats from the 19-game streak:

Goals for: 79
Goals against: 27
Power play percentage: 20
Penalty kill percentage: 82.4

You can watch the Red Wings try to match the 20-win record on NBC Sports Network as they take on the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET. If Detroit wins that, a Tuesday night game against the Dallas Stars would be all that stands in the Detroit’s way from becoming the sole leader in that impressive record.

Looking beyond the pursuit of the record

Shifting from historical impacts to a shorter-term view of the season, the Red Wings have four consecutive home games, six of seven and eight of their next 10 at Joe Louis Arena going forward. If the Red Wings stays hot in Detroit, the team could build a truly formidable lead in the Central Division and the Western Conference as a whole.

* The 1929-30 Boston Bruins and 1975-76 Philadelphia Flyers share that record.