Usually playing a second game in two nights doesn't prove successful for teams.
There's often travel involved, that much hockey in 48 hours (or less) is tough on the body, and things seem to get compounded when you're the road team.
But bring it on, say the Red Wings.
For the third time this season, the Wings went on the road of a back-to-back and came with a victory, Sunday 4-2 over Columbus.
Dominik Kubalik and Lucas Raymond had power play goals, Austin Czarnik opened the scoring, and Andrew Copp had a crucial third period goal, while goaltender Ville Husso, who got both starts over the weekend, stopped 31 shots.
The victory ended a three-game winless streak for the Wings (12-7-5), who opened a four-game road trip.
"It starts with the mindset," said Derek Lalonde before the game about the Wings' success in back to back games. "When you travel it is a bit of a challenge and our guys have attacked it. We've talked about having energy and finding a way to have some energy and they've had a good mindset."
Columbus cut the Wings' lead to 3-2 just 1:58 into the third period when Johnny Gaudreau wheeled behind the net and found former Michigan star Kent Johnson near the hashmarks for Johnson's sixth goal.
The Wings appeared to restore the two-goal lead thanks to Dylan Larkin. But Larkin's goal was nixed for the Wings being offsides, keeping the score 3-2 Wings and maintaining all the momentum toward the Blue Jackets.
Copp did regain the two-goal lead, 4-2, though soon after, scoring his third goal on a bad angle shot past goaltender Joonas Korpisalo at 6:08 of the third period.
Czarnik got the Wings rolling with his second goal as a Wing. Olli Maatta made a good play to keep the puck in the zone, and fed Jonatan Berggren along the boards. Berggren skated down and snapped a shot toward the net that Czarnik, skating through, deflected past Korpisalo at 6:34 of the first period.
Husso made a fine save, frustrating Boone Jenner on a redirect right in front of the crease, keeping the game 1-0 shortly after Czarnik's goal.
The save proved beneficial as the Wings quickly built on the lead, with Kubalik scoring his 10th goal, a one-timer from the right dot on a feed from Filip Hronek, at 17:36 of the first period.
The power play kept humming in the second period for the Wings. With Columbus on an endless parade to the penalty box, on a Wings' two-man advantage, Hronek fed Raymond near the post, who redirected the puck past goaltender Korpisalo for Raymond's eighth goal (and first in 10 games) at 7:03.
Columbus narrowed the lead on its first power play.
Marcus Bjork notched his second goal with a blast from the high slot at 16:10, cutting the Wings' lead to 3-1.
The victory was the second this season for the Wings over the struggling Jackets (8-13-2), continuing a trend of the Wings having success against teams outside of the playoff picture but struggling themselves against playoff caliber teams.
The last three games of this road trip, against Tampa, Florida and Dallas, are against teams with playoff aspirations.
"You look at our track record, and it's only a small sample size, but there is a cutoff statistic getting to those seven, eight, nine elite teams, we haven't fared well against them," Lalonde said. "We want to take some steps forward and that's the next step, being able to compete with, and against those teams."
