Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond and Marco Kasper had a total of nine points to propel the Detroit Red Wings to a sixth consecutive victory by a score of 5-3 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena.
Kane (three assists), DeBrincat (one goal, one assist) and Raymond (one goal, one assist) continued their momentum. In the last six games for the Red Wings (19-18-4), they have had four, three and four nights of more than one point, respectively.
Their good offensive production coincides with the arrival of Todd McLellan to replace Derek Lalonde, fired on December 27. The Red Wings have a record of six wins and one loss since this change of guard.
At 4:26, DeBrincat broke the ice, assisted by Kane, who was playing a third game against his former team.
A little more than six minutes later, Connor Bedard of the Blackhawks (14-26-2) skillfully fed Ryan Donato with a cross-ice pass in the opposing zone and Donato’s one-timer could not be blocked by a stretched Cam Talbot all along. This goal allowed Bedard to extend his streak of games with at least one point to nine, the longest of his young career.
As soon as play resumed in the second period, Raymond completed a tic-tac-toe started by Kane and DeBrincat on the power play to give the Red Wings a 2-1 lead. It was the only goal of the second period.
After five minutes of play in the third period, Andrew Copp made himself forgotten at the mouth of the net to beat Mrazek with a one-timer. Two former Blackhawks, Erik Gustafsson and Kane, participated in this goal.
Just 2:07 later, the visitors were dealt a blow when Albert Johansson scored his first goal in his 20th NHL game to make it 4-1 in favor of the Red Wings.
However, Teuvo Teravainen reduced the gap to two goals a little over three minutes later on the Blackhawks’ 10th shot.
That same Teravainen made things interesting by scoring a second goal with 2:54 to play, but Marco Kasper scored into an empty net 1:15 later to seal the game.
Talbot only needed to make 12 saves on 15 shots to sign the victory in front of the home team’s cage.
