Wings aim to remain on right track in matchup with Penguins

The Detroit Red Wings will look for their second win in a row Sunday evening when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins, and that might be more significant than it would seem at first glance.The Red Wings are trying to hold on to a playoff spot they just regained. They sit in the second and last wild-card position in the Eastern Conference and probably are fortunate to be there, considering they just ended a seven-game losing streak.”I’ve been part of a few losing streaks during my career, and they all suck,” goaltender James Reimer said Saturday after he made 25 saves to help Detroit end the skid with a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.It was the Red Wings’ first victory in March – the team most recently won on Feb. 27, 8-3 over Washington. The Wings were outscored 36-12 during the seven-game skid.The win over the Sabres, combined with a New York Islanders overtime loss, moved Detroit back into a playoff spot, but there are five teams, including Pittsburgh, on the outside but still feasibly in the hunt for a postseason spot in the East.Reimer said his team’s “sense of urgency was just incredible” Saturday, and the Red Wings likely will need that again Sunday.Detroit forward Christian Fischer, who scored Saturday, had a hard time describing what was different in that game, why he and his teammates were able to break out of their funk or how they could bottle it moving forward.”I wish there was one answer for it, but I think it was just a complete game,” he said.”As bad as that all went (during the losing streak), we dictate what’s going to happen. If we go on a good run here, we put together a couple wins, we know how that’s going to work.”Red Wings captain and top goal scorer Dylan Larkin, who has a lower-body injury, has skated some with his teammates but will miss his seventh straight game Sunday, coach Derek Lalonde said.Pittsburgh didn’t help itself Saturday, falling 7-4 to one of the top teams in the East, the New York Rangers, to fall seven points behind Detroit in the wild-card race.

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