DETROIT -- Jonas Gustavsson appears to finally be over his injury woes. The backup goaltender was hobbled by groin injuries for much of the lockout shortened campaign last year, after being signed by the Red Wings as a free agent. And when this season began Gustavsson again found himself on injured reserve with another groin pull. But he has been outstanding in two consecutive wins in two days. The latest was Tuesday nights 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, in which Gustavsson made 36 saves. "I felt good. We had a game yesterday, so back-to-back, and that was the first couple of games that I played so that was different," Gustavsson said. "Its just a matter of preparing yourself and be ready to go out and have a good first period because thats usually the key in these kind of games." Gustavsson is in the lineup due to No. 1 goalie Jimmy Howards sore hand. Gustavsson backstopped Detroit to a 3-2 win in Boston on Monday afternoon. His biggest save on Tuesday night was a spectacular stop on Columbus defenceman Jack Johnson, sliding across the crease to smother a backhand shot from the right circle with 5:20 left to preserve the Red Wings lead. "I dont know if I couldnt get a good push or if I got caught with one of our or their guys, but I had to do something to get some part of my body over there," Gustavsson said. "Lucky enough that was enough." Red Wings coach Mike Babcock talked about Guistavsson. "Really good for him, first and foremost, and then really good for us. If he can get his confidence back, the reason we signed him was we thought he could really help us," Babcock said. "Tonight and last night, going back to back, will go a long way to doing it. You got to stay healthy and feel good about yourself. In this league you got to earn it and hes done that the last couple nights." Daniel Alfredsson scored his first goal as a Red Wing and Todd Bertuzzi got the game winner. Henrik Zetterberg had two assists. Cam Atkinson scored for Columbus and Sergei Bobrobsky made 30 saves. "I thought we deserved a better fate," Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. "I thought the guys worked real hard and I saw a lot of good things." Bertuzzis power-play goal gave the Red Wings a 2-1 with 8:46 left in the middle period. He scored from just outside the crease for his second goal. Atkinson put the Blue Jackets on the board and tied the game 7:48 into the second period with an unassisted power-play goal. It was a spectacular individual effort as Atkinson carried the puck the length of the ice, bulled past Detroit defenceman Dan DeKeyser, got off one shot and then jammed the rebound past Gustavsson. It was Atkinsons second goal. "I just used my speed to my benefit and kind of just went with it," Atkinson said. Alfredsson gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead 5:05 into the game when he blasted a slap shot past Bobrovsky from the left circle. Detroit led 1-0 after the first period, despite being outshot 18-7. Notes: Petr Mrazek was recalled from Grand Rapids of the AHL earlier in the day to back up Gustavsson. .. .Columbus D James Wisniewski is a native of the Detroit-area suburb Canton and played his junior hockey with the suburban-Detroit based Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League. .. Blue Jackets D Johnson is from Ann Arbor and played at the University of Michigan. .. The start of the game was pushed back 30 minutes to 8 p.m. because of the Detroit Tigers American League Championship Series game against the Boston Red Sox, which began at 4 p.m. at Comerica Park. .. Blue Jackets RW Jared Boll also played with the OHLs Plymouth Whalers. .. Detroit sent C Darren Helm to Grand Rapids on a conditioning stint. He hasnt played this season and played only one game last season due to a sore back. . Columbus C Matt Calvert underwent abdominal surgery and is out for six weeks. Houston Antwine Jersey . The Toronto Argonauts (11-7) look for an opportunity to repeat as CFL champions when they host the surging Hamilton Tiger-Cats (10-8) on Sunday. Junior Seau Jersey .J. -- New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is going to start the off-season training program with a surgically repaired left ankle. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/1901p...y-patriots.html. -- The Detroit Lions made it crystal clear to Golden Tate that he was their top target in free agency. Danny Shelton Jersey . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. Andre Tippett Jersey . - Connor McDavid scored twice and added two assists as the Erie Otters beat the Sarnia Sting 7-3 on Saturday night in Ontario Hockey League action.It really didnt come as a surprise that the Florida Panthers fired head coach Kevin Dineen Friday, but its not like a change in the coaching staff is going to magically cure what ails this team. Any time a team fails to meet expectations, coaches end up on the chopping block, but that leads to the question: why would there have been expectations put upon the Florida Panthers for the 2013-2014 season? Go back to the 2011-2012 season, when the Panthers won the Southeast Division, with 94 points in 82 games, despite recording 32 regulation and overtime wins, a total that tied non-playoff teams Buffalo, Carolina (who finished last in the Southeast Division) and Colorado for 20th in the league. The Panthers also had a minus-24 goal differential, so anything beyond the point total in the standings suggested they were not really a playoff-calibre team. Consider them a prime example of a team not being what its record is. Then the Panthers proceeded to lose in double-overtime of Game Seven (after losing in overtime in Game Six) in the first round of the playoffs against the eventual Eastern-Conference-Champion New Jersey Devils, making it easy to sell the idea that the Panthers were "this close" to competing with the top teams in the league. It needs to be noted, however, that the Panthers overachieved in 2011-2012, to even generate mediocre results disguised as playoff-worthy. Florida needed to spend a lot of money in the summer of the 2011 season just to get above the salary floor and, as a result, cobbled together a make-shift roster, handing out some contracts that had surprisingly long-term implications. Sure, Florida signed Tomas Fleischmann (four years, $18-million), and he scored a career-high 61 points in 2011-2012, and has generally been a productive scorer since. C Marcel Goc (three years, $5.19-million) has been okay and G Jose Theodore (two years, $3-million) was a low-risk move, but the Panthers also inked RW Scottie Upshall (four years, $14-million), D Ed Jovanovski (four years, $16.5-million) and LW Sean Bergenheim (four years, $11-million), none of whom has provided a decent return on investment. (Injuries have admittedly played a part in their lack of production.) The Panthers also dipped into GM Dale Tallons past and traded for some former Chicago Blackhawks: D Brian Campbell, RW Kris Versteeg and RW Tomas Kopecky. That roster didnt have any business harbouring playoff expectations yet, with Dineen taking over for Peter DeBoer behind the bench, the Panthers defied the odds and reached the postseason, thanks in large part to Fleischmann, Versteeg and Stephen Weiss, their top line that combined for 70 goals and 172 points. Campbell added 53 points while playing nearly 27 minutes per game. That quartet made up the entire list of Florida Panthers to record more than 33 points that season, so there wasnt a lot coming from the supporting cast. The 2013 season brought much worse results, particularly when injuries limited Weiss and Versteeg to a total of 27 games and the goaltending went from decent, ranking 11th with a .914 save percentage, to a league-worrst .dddddddddddd.887 save percentage in the lockout-shortened 2013 season. Those injuries, and subpar goaltending, over a small-sample season may have been what led Tallon to still harbour expectations for this team coming into the 2013-2014 season. Or maybe its because there is a new owner calling the shots that the Panthers couldnt simply see the 2013-2014 season as one for development of their young talent. After all, the Panthers have added some promising young players including LW Jonathan Huberdeau, C Aleksander Barkov and C Nick Bjugstad, who are all playing significant minutes. D Erik Gudbranson, the third overall pick in 2010, and D Dmitry Kulikov, the 14th pick in 2009 are still works in progress, but young enough to be part of what the Panthers are trying to build. G Jacob Markstrom is supposed to be the goaltender of the future, even if the 23-year-old has struggled this year. Forwards Vincent Trocheck and Drew Shore and defencemen Alex Petrovic and Colby Robak have been in the AHL, playing for new head coach Peter Horacheck. Trocheck, who has 11 points in 11 games as a first-year pro and nearly made the Panthers out of training camp, could get his opportunity soon. In the summer of 2013, the Panthers didnt spend big money, but brought in a lot of veterans on low-money deals. Defencemen Tom Gilbert has been a bargain as a top-four defenceman while Matt Gilroy and checking forward Jesse Winchester have been decent. Veteran forwards Brad Boyes and Scott Gomez along with blueliner Ryan Whitney have not been effective and goaltender Tim Thomas hasnt been able to stay healthy in his attempt to return to action after a year off. As a result, the Panthers have the leagues 28th-ranked goal differential (minus-1.36 per game), ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately, the goaltending hasnt gotten any better this season, ranking 28th with an .885 save percentage, and no team can win with goaltending of that calibre, let alone a team that isnt scoring at the other end of the ice and the Panthers rank 29th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage when the score is close. The good news, according to the probabilities of advanced stats, is that the Panthers arent likely to maintain such terrible shooting and save percentages all season, so they are due to get some better results; a little "puck luck" as it were. Of course, being better than their current 3-9-4 record doesnt mean all that much. When those young players start to control play more consistently and the Panthers start getting adequate goaltending, they may turn the corner, but thats going to require patience and the expectations placed on this team dont necessarily allow for patience. Trouble is, when a general manager makes moves that appear to reveal a lack of patience, its fair to start wondering if the next one on the chopping block will be the GM. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '