Dylan Larkin Andreas Athanasiou 3-16-17

Red Wings Dylan Larkin, right, celebrates his goal against the Arizona with Andreas Athanasiou.

(The Associated Press)

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill likes the way two of the fastest skaters in the NHL have looked on the same line.

Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou provided a spark with their speed in Thursday's 5-4 shootout victory over the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena.

"Dylan Larkin was excellent, Andreas Athanasiou was excellent," Blashill said. "I thought those two guys did a good job on back-to-backs. They had the young legs and they did an excellent job."

Lines change a lot on this team, but Blashill hopes to keep Larkin, Athanasiou and Justin Abdelkader together for the final 13 games of the season, including Saturday afternoon against the Colorado Avalanche at Joe Louis Arena (1 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).

This was Larkin's fifth game at center, where the Red Wings hope he will remain permanently.

"I think playing with a guy like Andreas is huge," Larkin said. "It makes myself as a centerman worry less about how we're going to get up the ice. In the Colorado game (3-1 loss Wednesday), a few times I just threw it to his wing where he was flying and you know he's going to get the puck in the other zone and we're going to have chances to play offense.

"We've been focusing on holding onto pucks more and trying to create off the cycle. We got some puck luck (Thursday), but the puck kind of seemed to follow us around. We did a good job of stopping on pucks and hanging onto it and trying to make some plays down low."

Blashill said Abdelkader complements the pair with his forechecking.

"I thought he played excellent," Blashill said. "He adds physicality, he adds net presence, can make a play. It looks like that can be a real good line."

Larkin has a power-play goal and three assists since moving back to center. But he's also posted a minus-6 rating during that stretch and is minus-26 for the season. He must improve defensively to remain in the middle.

"It's still performance-based and it's still competitive with the centers on our team," Larkin said "You got a great two-way centerman like Darren Helm who's playing on the wing. If I'm not playing well, it's that competitive where he'll come in and do the solid job that he's done most of the year. I do feel more comfortable at the position and I'm having fun playing with AA and Abby."

Power play emerges from basement

The Red Wings went 2 for 7 on the power play Thursday to improve to 13.1 percent this season and slip ahead of Colorado, which is last at 13 percent.

"Real positive is the two goals on the power play and then I thought there were other moments where our power play could have scored for sure," Blashill said. "Zetterberg's unit had real chances in the third period. You don't like the (shorthanded goal against), obviously."

The Red Wings have only 10 power-play goals on the road and this was just the second time this season they have scored twice on the man-advantage away from home.

Shootout kings

The Red Wings were 49-65 in shootouts before 2016-17. They are 8-0 this season.

Only three teams have gone an entire season undefeated in shootouts - Colorado was 4-0 in 2015-16; Pittsburgh and Washington were 3-0 in the lockout-shortened 2013 season.

"Our goalies have done a real good job of stopping," Blashill said. "Thomas Vanek's not here anymore, but he added an element, (Frans) Nielsen's done a good job, (Gustav) Nyquist's done a good job. We got guys that can score in the shootout and out goalies have done a good job stopping them."