DETROIT -- All season long, the Detroit Red Wings have wondered what might have been if they'd had all hands on deck. They pondered just how good of a team they could have proven to be.

They offered some evidence to support this theory Friday. Jimmy Howard, back from a 32-game absence due to a knee injury, made 24 saves for his first win since Nov. 23 and the forward line of Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar and Gus Nyquist delivered a dominating performance, producing all four goals in a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

"I thought we were great," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "I thought we competed hard. We played with a good urgency level.

"I thought we played a pretty smart game."

Detroit, second to last in the Eastern Conference with 63 points, halted its three-game losing streak. In their previous start, the Wings culminated a 1-3-1 road trip with an embarrassing 6-1 loss Wednesday at Boston.

"It was a tough trip," Tatar said. "It was unacceptable.

"We didn't show up. We didn't play well."

They certainly showed up Friday, even if it didn't start out as planned.

Just 4:23 after the opening faceoff, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin combined on a sweet give-and-go en route to opening the scoring. Panarin rifled a one-timer from a Kane feed past Howard on Chicago's first shot of the game.

"We had the start we wanted and then we give up two goals late in the first," Kane said.

Detroit tied it at 16:25 when Xavier Ouellet's high point shot got past Chicago goalie Corey Crawford on the stick side. It was Ouellet's first goal since Jan. 18.

The Red Wings grabbed the lead with just eight seconds to go in the opening period. Nick Jensen slid a pass across to Andreas Athanasiou, whose low blast eluded Crawford, who was screened by Tatar.

The Tatar-Nyquist-Zetterberg trio took over from that point onward.

Tatar scored twice, netting the game winner and an insurance goal to give him a team-leading 17 goals on the season. Zetterberg picked up two assists, marking his sixth multi-point game in his last nine games (1-13-14 in that stretch). The Red Wings' captain has 24 points (5-19-24) in his last 19 games.

"Obviously those two are great players," Nyquist said. "Hank up the middle there, he makes a lot of nice plays and makes it easy for me and Tats.

"It was nice to see a couple go in tonight."

With 4:43 left in the second period, the Red Wings upped their advantage to 3-1. Taking a drop pass from Nyquist, Zetterberg fired a shot that Crawford stopped. Situated on the edge of the goal crease, Tatar took two swings at the puck, swatting it into the net on the second opportunity.

"I just created a net presence and I got a lucky bounce," Tatar said. "I missed my first chance and it stayed right there and I just got the rebound."

The Blackhawks narrowed the margin with 44.3 seconds left in the second period when Trevor Van Riemsdyk's low shot from just inside the blue line snuck under Howard's right pad.

Tatar scored the only goal of the third period. After Nyquist forced a turnover in the Chicago zone, he dished to Zetterberg, who found Tatar open in the slot and he whipped a shot past Crawford.

The Blackhawks lost for the second time in as many nights and also saw their club-record eight-game road winning streak halted.

"I recognize the fact that they played last night, but from our own perspective I thought we played real good," Blashill said.

Van Riemsdyk felt the Blackhawks were lacking something all night long.

"We were trying to work and get things going but we just seemed to be a little off for whatever reason," Van Riemsdyk said.

NOTES: Stating he was unhappy with the consistency of RW Anthony Mantha, Blashill made the rookie, who is tied for third on the Wings with 14 goals, a healthy scratch. ... D Ryan Sproul (knee) was also scratched, while D Jonathan Ericsson (wrist) is on IRL. ... Chicago's Artem Anisimov (21.2 percent) is second in the NHL in shooting percentage. ... Former Wings F Tomas Jurco made his first appearance at Joe Louis Arena since his Feb. 24 trade to Chicago. ... Chicago scratches were D Johnny Oduya, D Niklas Hjalmarsson, F Jordin Tootoo, F Dennis Rasmussen and G Scott Darling.