DETROIT — Not even David Backes could explain what happened.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound winger scored a career-high four goals, including the go-ahead score with 4:07 left, in the surging Blues’ 5-4 victory over the Red Wings on Thursday night.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Backes, who also had his first hat trick. “One of those games where you kind of black out and then they’re patting you on the back.”
Andy McDonald also scored, and Chris Mason made 34 saves to help the Blues jump from ninth to eighth in the Western Conference playoff race. The Blues are a point behind seventh- place Anaheim and one ahead of ninth-place Nashville.
“We just battled in the third period,” Mason said. “It was back and forth, and we got the two points.”
Nicklas Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall each had a goal and two assists, and Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen each had a goal and an assist for the Wings, who lost their third straight and fourth in five games.
“Obviously, the job I’m doing here, the team is not ready,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “So, myself and the leadership group here, as a group of individuals, we’ve got to do better than this. This is unacceptable.”
Backes broke a 4-4 tie with his 30th goal of the season, scoring on a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle.
“We felt that David had the potential to be a 30-goal scorer,” Blues coach Andy Murray said. “But we didn’t think it would happen here in Detroit.”
