For the Red Wings, and the Flyers every game from this point on is a playoff game, especially for Detroit.

The Red Wings went into Tuesday night's game with a three point lead over Philadelphia for the second wild card spot, and unanswered questions offensively as they have struggled to put the puck in the net on a consistent basis.

Detroit tried to shake things up by calling up top prospect Anthony Mantha and pairing him with Pavel Datsyuk.

The arrival of Mantha did not do much, as the Red Wings were out shot by the Flyers in the first period 23-3, not exactly a recipe for success for a team pushing to continue their impressive playoff win streak.

The Red Wings found themselves down 2-0 after the first period, and had a tall hill to climb after only garnering three shots on goal.

Andreas Athanasiou scored less than three minutes into the second period to get the Red Wings back within one goal, but Michael Raffl put the Flyers back up two goals just five minutes later. Datsyuk scored his 14th of the season to tighten the gap for the Wings, but again it was widened again at the end of the second period after rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere scored his 16th goal of the season.

Detroit made it interesting in the third period as Tomas Tatar scored with less than four minutes to play to get the game within one goal, but were unable to tie it at the end.

The Red Wings finished with 37 shots on goal, and committed 16 turnovers in the game.

Petr Mrazek stopped 42 shots on the night.

Detroit still sits int he second wild card position in the Eastern Conference, they trail Pittsburgh who holds down the top wild card spot, by three points.

Notes:

The Red Wings will travel to Columbus on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m.

Top prospect Anthony Mantha made his NHL debut, the 900th player to don the winged wheel. He finished with 14:45 time on ice, no goals, no assists, and four shots on goal.

Athanasiou continued his hot play but played the least amount of minutes of all the Red Wings  (9:14).