The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-4 in a shootout on Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning, sweeping their 4-game road trip through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
The Red Wings’ 7th straight victory affords the Wings the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference at 28-21-and-5 for 61 points in 54 games played, one more point than Saturday’s opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning (which holds 2 games in hand upon Detroit as of Wednesday morning).
It’s almost inconceivable to say this, but the Red Wings sit 1 point behind the 3rd-in-the-Atlantic Ottawa Senators, and only 6 points behind the Atlantic-leading Florida Panthers.
The Red Wings probably aren’t going to climb that high, but as mashed-up as the Eastern Conference’s Wild Card race is, it will behoove the Red Wings to close out the pre-Four Nations tournament schedule by earning their 8th straight win.
As far as Tuesday night/Wednesday morning’s game is concerned, however, the Red Wings could have won this one a lot easier if they didn’t get some bad bounces, bad non-calls against Seattle, and made some pretty basic mistakes.
As MLive’s Ansar Khan noted, the Wings’ road sweep was historic…
It is the first time the Red Wings have swept a four-game road trip since March 2-10, 1996.
But it definitely emptied the Red Wings’ gas tanks, mentally, physically, and probably emotionally, so the Wings will most likely need their Wednesday off as well as Thursday and Friday to properly prepare for Saturday’s matinee against Tampa Bay.
Detroit surrendered 1-0, 2-1 and 4-2 leads to Seattle en route to an overtime that included chances to score for both teams..
So it took Patrick Kane’s 53rd shootout goal–an NHL record–and a couple of stops from Cam Talbot (who was up-and-down in stopping 23 of 27 shots, out-goaltended by Seattle’s Joey Daccord by a substantial margin) to finally snuff out the resilient Kraken.
Detroit did go 2-for-4 on the power play–scoring both goals off faceoff wins–and killed the Kraken’s only power play, but between Daccord and the goofy bounces and mistakes, the Kraken really do deserve credit for persevering.
As SeattleKraken.com’s Bob Condor noted, the Kraken knew it:
Power plays steered the Kraken into one too many dangerous curves Tuesday night against red-hot Detroit, prompting the 5-4 final that featured no quit in the Kraken at any point of this game.
“There was a bunch of adversity in the game for us,” said Kraken coach Dan Bylsma post-game. “Some unfortunate pucks and plays got us back in our heels early on. They got to the power play, where we knew we needed to keep them off of, and they cashed in on their opportunities … we answered back a couple of times but they always seemed to answer with power play goal. It kept us fighting back in the game, which we did, the guys still kept coming, still pushing, and found a way to claw back to even.”
As the Seattle Times’ Tim Booth suggested, this was “one to grow upon” for the young Kraken:
The Kraken rallied from a 4-2 deficit to force overtime before falling 5-4 to the Detroit Red Wings in a shootout on Tuesday night. It was a scrappy effort by the Kraken that was a far better performance than what they showed last month in Detroit when they trailed 4-0 after one period on their way to a 6-2 loss.
“Really proud of our compete there and to come back and score two in the third and force extra time, get the extra point shows a lot about our character as a team,” center Shane Wright said. “Obviously, not the great end result, but yeah, really proud of how we fought there in the third.”
The Kraken pulled within 4-3 on Wright’s second goal of the game with 9:50 remaining, the second two-goal game of the season for Seattle’s 21-year-old center. Chandler Stephenson ensured the Kraken would get at least one point out of the effort when he beat Detroit goalie Cam Talbot five-hole with 2:56 left to pull Seattle even at 4-4.
In overtime Brandon Montour had a terrific chance halfway through the five-minute session saved by Talbot, but both Talbot and Seattle’s Joey Daccord turned away every chance during the frantic extra period.
In the shootout, Matty Beniers and Wright missed the first two attempts for Seattle and Patrick Kane scored for Detroit. Kaapo Kakko had a chance to extend the shootout but couldn’t get a clean shot off. Kane’s shootout goal was the 53rd in his career, the most in league history.
Daccord made 36 saves in regulation and overtime, including some big stops in the third period and overtime.
Detroit won its seventh straight game and continued to thrive under coach Todd McLellan since he was hired on Dec. 26. McLellan was a candidate for the Seattle job last offseason that went to Dan Bylsma and the Red Wings are now 15-3-1 since McLellan arrived.
Beniers agreed with his coach regarding the Red Wings’ power play delivering in an unfortunate way for Seattle…
“I thought it was back and forth. I thought we had a good amount of chances five-on-five but give them credit, they did a good job of getting their looks, too, five-on-five. Joey made some great saves,” Beniers said. “I thought it was back and forth, and we just can’t give them that many power plays. Can’t give any team that many power plays.”
For the Red Wings, as NHL.com’s Darren Brown noted, there was a take-the-points-and-run-home-with-them attitude post-game. Moritz Seider, who scored in his 300th straight game, said this about his goal:
Seider regained a 2-1 lead for the Red Wings with a power-play goal at 19:30. Alex DeBrincat won a face-off back to Seider, who walked across the blue line and snapped a shot through a screen past Daccord’s glove.
“We always have a plan going into every face-off,” Seider said. “[Shooting off the face-off] just creates chaos. I mean, not every shot is going in, but we’ll get second and third opportunities, and then we have a lot of great skill up front to capitalize on those chances.”
From there, the power play delivered…
Berggren gave the Red Wings a 3-2 lead at 12:07 of the second with a power-play goal. After Andrew Copp won a face-off back to him, he whipped a wrist shot from the top of the slot past Daccord’s blocker.
Soderblom, 23, has two goals and three assists during a five-game point streak, and Berggren, 24, has one goal and three assists during a four-game streak.
“Everything’s brand new for us, so we just play [guys like Berggren and Soderblom] and see what we get out of them, and they’ve responded,” McLellan said. “They’ve made good on their end of the bargain, where they come up [from the American Hockey League] and they play hard and they keep themselves in the lineup.”
Soderblom pushed it to 4-2 at 3:21 of the third period, four seconds after a power play ended. Joe Veleno fought through Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn’s check at the side of the net and passed across the top of the crease to Soderblom, who backhanded it into an open net.
And coach McLellan said this about Soderblom’s goal:
“Tonight, it was about special teams,” McLellan said. “We had two power-play goals, and one a second after, so call it three. The penalty kill did its job, and we won the shootout, so all special-team situations, yet I thought our 5-on-5 game was pretty good.”
Seider was willing to puff out his chest a bit…
“I think we stayed really composed, didn’t really give up a lot,” Seider said. “I knew we’re a good OT and shootout team, and obviously we have great skill up front. We just stayed with it, and obviously [it was] a great road trip.”
And the Free Press’s Helene St. James took note of the Wings’ composure after surrendering that 2-goal, 3rd period lead:
“There wasn’t a lot of panic on the bench,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We didn’t want to get to that point, and I thought we had opportunities earlier to make it 5-2 but they came back. The bench was generally pretty calm. You could feel the belief was still there. Wild overtime, could have went either way. And then when we get to the shootout, we’re pretty confident with the shooters that we have. Razer hit the post and the goal that Patty scored set him up for the most shootout goals in NHL history. You can see why.”
Kane scored in the second round of the shootout, after Raymond hit the post, securing two points for the Wings after the Kraken had made a go of it in regulation. Shane Wright scored his second goal of the game midway through the third period, snapping a shot behind Cam Talbot, and Chandler Stephenson was able to get in on a breakaway and score with less than three minutes to play.
On both of the Kraken’s long-bomb goals, Wright’s 2-2 and Chandler Stephenson’s 4-4 goals, both Elmer Soderblom, who turns 22 today, and Albert Johansson got crossed-up on stretch passes, affording the Kraken breakaway passes through the middle of the ice to Johansson’s defensive side.
Still…
Seider said the Wings, “Stayed really composed. We just stayed with it and it was a great road trip.”
Coach McLellan was at least moderately satisfied, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson noted:
“To go home with eight points in the bank. I’m not sure that we thought we would get that when we left,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “But we chipped away and chipped away.”
…
The Red Wings coughed up a 4-2 lead in the third period, but Kane won it with the only goal in the shootout, lifting the puck past Seattle netminder Joey Daccord.
“What a trip,” Kane said..”The guys have been playing great. Obviously, I missed some time there, but it was fun to come back in and be part of a couple wins and, man, I mean, the team is just feeling confident right now, finding ways to win.”
The Wings ply one more game before the break, a Saturday afternoon game with Tampa Bay. The Wings lost at Tampa on their last road trip, an overall effort that McLellan called “average.”
Asked to grade this trip, McLellan said with a wry grin: “Above average.”
Seider offered this meaty quote to DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills…
“Ever since Todd [McLellan] came in, I think we just proved that we’re a good hockey team,” said Moritz Seider, who scored a goal and played his 300th career NHL game on Tuesday. “We knew we had it in the locker room and we just couldn’t find a spark. Obviously, he brought that extra spark. That brought us back to life, but still a long way to go. We’re right in the picture where we want to be.”
Goalie Cam Talbot made 23 saves and stopped all three shootout attempts to help the Red Wings (28-21-5; 61 points) sweep their four-game Western road trip and stretch their point streak to a season-high eight consecutive contests. The Kraken (23-28-4; 50 points) got a 36-save night from netminder Joey Daccord.
“The spirit and the belief system have gone up,” said McLellan, who has guided the team to a 15-4-1 record since taking over behind the bench. “They’re playing to the structure that we put in. It’s easy when you’re winning – you can get people to believe in things a lot simpler than if you’re losing.”
Again, Seider was willing to puff his chest out a little bit, even regarding his status as an every-other-game point-producer,
“Hopefully it’s only the beginning,” said Seider, who also surpassed Larry Murphy for the fifth-most points by a Red Wings defenseman through 300 games with the franchise. “Hopefully, there are many more to come. It feels good to get a goal.”
And you can take this for what it’s worth:
“There were a couple breakdowns, but we have our leaders coming up and down the bench telling us to stay confident and to hang in there,” Patrick Kane said. “Seider’s doing that. Obviously, some leadership from a young guy. That’s huge. That keeps us in the right mindset and wanting to play on the attack.”
Among Mills’ post-game quote bank:
McLellan on finding another way to get two points
“Tonight, it was about special teams. We had two power-play goals, one a second after, so call it three. Penalty kill did its job and we won the shootout, so all special-teams situations. I thought our 5-on-5 game was pretty good. We didn’t give up much. [Talbot] made some saves when he had to, probably wants one or two back but when it came to the shootout, they didn’t get anything. Everybody chipped in.”
Seider on Tuesday’s shootout win
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, especially against a good team. They’re a lot better at home than on the road. I think we stayed really composed. We didn’t really give up a lot. I knew we’re a good OT and shootout team, and obviously we have great skill up front. We just stayed with it, and obviously a great road trip.”
Above average is good to see. Now we all get a couple of days off from the hockey grind and one final pre-Four Nations game in an ABC matinee on Saturday.
So far, so good. Let’s keep it going.
Multimedia:
Highlights:
As posted above, Sportsnet posted the full shootout:
There’s 10:19 of Sportsnet full-game highlights if you prefer:
NHL.com posted a 10:18 highlight clip:
Post-game: The Kraken’s website posted clips of Matty Beniers, Shane Wright and coach Dan Bylsma’s post-game comments;
The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a clip of Patrick Kane, Jonatan Berggren and coach Todd McLellan’s post-game comments:
The Red Wings posted a clip of Moritz Seider, Kane and coach McLellan’s post-game comments:
Photos: The Free Press posted a 15-image gallery;
The Seattle Times also posted a 15-image gallery.
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
