The Detroit Red Wings captured a 3-2 shootout victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night, earning their 4th straight victory as they began a stretch of 4 games to be played over the course of 6 nights in Alberta and the Pacific Northwest.
In doing so, the Red Wings rebounded from a 2-0 1st-period deficit to the Oilers, thanks to 2 goals in 1:48 of 2nd period play, from Michael Rasmussen and Dylan Larkin…
And Detroit really went from being dominated by the Oilers in the 1st period and for stretches in the 2nd to going toe-to-toe with Edmonton in the 3rd and OT…
So it came as no surprise that overtime solved nothing. The shootout did, and it did in the form of 2 more stops from Alex Lyon–who saved 45 of 47 in regulation–and shootout goals from Lucas Raymond and Larkin:
A SHOOTOUT MASTERCLASS. pic.twitter.com/EEVqHMdafv
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 31, 2025
The Red Wings’ captain deserves a shout-out for his performance in this game. While it was Moritz Seider who hit 30:44 for the first time, and Seider who made a stick save to keep the Red Wings tied at 2 when Alex Lyon fumbled a glove save, Larkin played 25:03, with 10 shots, 14 shot attempts, 3 giveaways, 3 takeaways, a blocked shot and a 24-and-15 faceoff record (62%).
Larkin took the team on his back as much as anyone, and that showed in the game’s result.
The Oilers know Todd McLellan pretty well, so they were complimentary toward his and his team’s machinations, as the Edmonton Sun’s Robert Tychkowski noted:
“They’re a pretty fast team and we gave them too many opportunities to play fast, spring each other on odd man rushes and get a couple of breakaways,” said Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “Overall we played an all right game, but there was a bit of a stretch there where we gave them too many easier opportunities.”
The Red Wings are a different team under new coach Todd McLellan, posting the exact same record over their previous 15 games (11-3-1) that the Oilers did. So assuming this was going to be an easy one because the Oilers were fourth overall and the Red Wings were 19th was a rookie mistake.
It was a battle from start to finish.
“He can get you motivated and you’re seeing that right now from this team,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who spent a few years under McLellan in Edmonton. “They’ve got a lot of young skill and they play a fast game and he encourages that a lot.”
They say you have to work for your breaks, so in a first period that saw the Oilers outshoot Detroit 14-7, it’s fair that they capitalized on a couple of fortunate bounces — Wings defenceman Ben Chiarot whiffing on a clearing attempt to set up Leon Draisaitl at 6:49 and goalie Alex Lyon whiffing on an attempt to freeze the puck, setting up a tap in for Jeff Skinner at 10:29.
Although a 2-0 lead at the first intermission didn’t come by conventional means, it was well earned.
This is where the Oilers were supposed to hit the gas and pull away, but they let up and got sloppy. Instead of scoring a goal to make it 3-0, or 3-1, they let some of their old habits from the close calls with Buffalo and Seattle creep back into their game and found themselves all tied up after 40 minutes. And then 60 minutes.
“I’m not sure if I can put my finger on exactly what the change was,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “They played a little bit quicker, a little bit faster. We had every opportunity to put them away early in the game, to get that third goal. We were just missing that.”
EdmontonOilers.com’s Jamie Umbach picks up the game’s narrative from there…
After the visitors entered the Oilers zone, winger Jonatan Berggren sent a shot on goal from the right side near the top of the circle that was tipped down by Rasmussen to beat Stuart Skinner over the left pad on the Red Wings’ first shot of the second period.
Stuart Skinner would stop Lucas Raymond one-on-one soon after, but the netminder wouldn’t be able to prevent captain Dylan Larkin from tying the game on another breakaway less than two minutes after Detroit cut into Edmonton’s lead, beating him under the right pad with 8:13 to go in the frame.
Defenceman Ty Emberson whacked at the stick of Larkin in pursuit, potentially altering the path of the puck after he didn’t get all of the shot, with Detroit fighting their way back to tie the game at 2-2 in the second stanza.
“They’re a pretty fast team, and I think we gave them a little too many opportunities to play fast and spring each other on odd-man rushes and a couple of breakaways,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “They capitalize on one, but overall, we played an alright game. Just a bit of a stretch there where we gave them too many easy opportunities.”
For the Red Wings, two obvious players stood out, as coach McLellan told NHL.com’s Gerry Moddejonge…
Alex Lyon made 45 saves, and the Detroit Red Wings came back for a 3-2 shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Thursday.
“I thought Alex was obviously a key to the victory,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “He faced a lot of shots, not all dangerous, but there were some succession-type shots that he had to be alert and get us some whistles when we broke down. That’s why the goalie wears the same color jersey as everybody else — he’s there to provide us that security, and he did that.”
Dylan Larkin scored the tying goal in the second period then had the second goal to end the shootout for the Red Wings (25-21-5), who won their fourth consecutive game. Lucas Raymond also scored in the shootout.
The Red Wings came back from trailing 2-0 in the first period for the second game in a row, defeating the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 on Monday.
“We were down two and we knew we had to be better, and we knew we’d get our legs going from the travel day yesterday and we did just that,” said Larkin. “It was a big win. It’s a hard start in this building always, and we learned our lesson last year, I think we were down 2-0 after the first shift of the game.
“You know when you play a team like that with the players they have and the two big guys, you know you’re going to get your chances. They’re going to get their pressure and their O-zone time, and I thought we did a good job just playing the game and keep it to the outside for the most part and limiting the odd-number rushes.”
Lyon sort of shrugged off his coach’s compliments…
“I felt good … you obviously never want to give up a goal like that in the first, when you have a chance to cover it and inflict harm on yourself,” Lyon said. “Maybe good motivation too to find that next level to shut it down. That was the mindset to try and give the guys a chance after that, and I’m just happy it worked out against such a good team.”
And Sportsnet’s Mark Spector took note of McLellan’s praise for #71:
Draisaitl had a goal and 10 shots on net against Detroit, while McDavid added an assist. Larkin stole the show, however, with a night for the ages.
The Red Wings captain took a whopping 39 faceoffs (winning 62 per cent of them), had the game-tying goal, scored in the shootout and added 10 shots on goal of his own. He played 25:03, second among forwards only to McDavid’s 25:55.
“That’s a captain’s night, a leadership night,” beamed McLellan post-game. “Think about how taxing that is to go against Leon and some of their other big centres, I think 36 or 37 times in the face-off circle. That alone can wear an individual out. And to check against those top-end guys as well as create offence? It’s a hell of a night.”
Down the hall, an Oilers team that is perhaps feeling some 50-game doldrums tipped their hats to McLellan and his new project.
It’s a familiar sight in these parts, McLellan standing behind the bench of a team with as much promise as it has work to do.
“He’s a great coach,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “We all liked him as a coach and as a guy. He can get you motivated and you’re seeing that right now from this (Detroit) team. They’ve got a lot of young skill and they play a fast game and he encourages that a lot. He doesn’t want anybody to feel like they’re not playing their game, their type of hockey. I’m sure they’re liking what they’re seeing so far.”
McLellan told the Canadian Press that he had a message for his team after the 1st period:
“We didn’t have enough players going (in first) and that was the conversation we had in between periods,” he said. “We had 10 or 12 players that were giving us what we needed and we had passengers.
“The challenge was to find three or four more in the second period. We didn’t know who was going to step up and where it was going to come from, but we found two or three more in the second and two or three more in the third.”
And the captain described the “conversation” thusly while speaking with the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:
“He came in and had some words with us after the first (period),” said Larkin, as the Oilers grabbed a quick 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. “We knew we had to get going but credit to him to get us going that way.”
Said Lyon: “We kind of found our legs. I wouldn’t say it was the best start to the road trip but we’ll take those two points for sure against such a dangerous team.”
The Wings (25-21-5) continue their road swing Saturday in Calgary, having now won four consecutive games. They are two points out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Michael Rasmussen and Larkin scored second-period goals, erasing the 2-0 Edmonton lead.
Rasmussen scored his eighth goal at 9:59. Elmer Soderblom skated the puck down the middle and found Jonatan Berggren on the wing. Berggren fired a shot toward net that Rasmussen got his stick on the shot, driving to the net.
“Prior to that goal, we weren’t directed or attacking the net, and trying to play an east-west game,” McLellan said. “I just don’t think that’s who we are. When we’re directed to the net and play off whatever occurs in that situation, we’re way better off.”
Larkin tied it at a little later, at 11:47. Marco Kasper banked a pass off the boards sending Larkin in alone. Larkin got behind the Oilers’ defense and snuck a shot past goaltender Stuart Skinner, Larkin’s 22nd goal.
Lyon, still smarting from the second goal he gave up, to Jeff Skinner, offered this:
“You never want to give up a goal like that in the first, when you have a chance to cover it and kind of inflict harm on yourself,” Lyon said. “Maybe good motivation too, and maybe kind of find that next level to shut it down. That was our mindset to try to give the guys a chance after that, and I’m just happy it worked out against such a good team.”
It worked out just fine.
Multimedia:
Highlights: NHL.com posted a 10:15 highlight clip:
Sportsnet posted a 10:25 highlight clip:
The shootout lasted 2:11:
Post-game: The Oilers’ website posted clips of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jeff Skinner, John Klingberg and coach Chris Knoblauch. They do a really nice post-game report as well:
The Red Wings posted a 10:44 clip of Dylan Larkin, Alex Lyon and coach Todd McLellan’s post-game comments:
Photos: The Free Press posted a 9-image gallery;
The Detroit News posted a 13-image gallery.
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
