Justin Abdelkader returned from injury just in the nick of time, helping Detroit fight off some dirty play.

You wouldn’t guess Stevie Y’s team would be so gay. But, they are. At one point in the third period, they took Petr Mrazek out from under his skates with a slash, and Abdelkader had seen enough. He went right over to the fucker and beat the shit out of him.

His physicality was the difference in the game. Overall, our defense was improved, displaying much more energy throughout. They never got on the board, and their frustration was mounting. After failing to convert a 5-on-3 power play, Mrazek denied a wide open, short-handed breakaway right before they tripped him.

Our asskicker also cashed in an assist. It was 1-0 Red Wings for two periods thanks to a Tomas Tatar slapshot that ricocheted off Pavel Datsyuk. In the third period, Henrik Zetterberg found Abdelkader, who delivered a perfect pass to Riley Sheahan in front of the net. He juked the goalie and calmly put us up 2-0. The smile on his face as our boys rejoiced was priceless (Sheahan’s first career playoff point).

In the end, the total number of shots was pretty equal. Detroit added a third goal on an empty netter from Luke Glendening with under a minute left.

I really hope the NHL suspends the Lightning who took our goalie’s skates out. He could have been killed, for real. All that padding up in the air, oldschool said he could have broke his neck, let alone tore his ACL or Achilles.

Our fans will not be taking it lightly for game four at Joe Louis Arena, either. They brought the raucous in game three, another Red Wings victory.