Red Wings-Blackhawks Tweetcap: DeBrincat, Kane, Gibson star as Detroit takes a 4-0 decision from Chicago

The Red Wings attempted to close out their 6-game road trip with a victory against the Connor Bedard-less Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday at the United Center. Wrapping up the road trip with a series of 3 games in 4 nights and 4 in 6 wouldn’t be easy, but these road trips always present challenges in terms of the quantity of games played over a short period of time.

On Saturday night, the Blackhawks gave Detroit no inch, out-shooting Detroit 26-24 and an ugly 12-4 in the 3rd period…

But Detroit got a whole bunch of goals early, and John Gibson was up to the task the rest of the way, helping Detroit pitch a 26-save shutout en route to a 4-0 win over the Blackhawks.

Alex DeBrincat would score only 55 seconds into the 1st period, from Copp and Kane, and DeBrincat would return the favor at 4:35, setting up Kane for a 2-0 marker.

After Detroit killed off a couple of Chicago power plays–3, to be exact–Emmitt Finnie scored his 7th from Raymond and ASP, who danced along the blueline to set up the goal, at 14:23 of the 2nd…

And while the Hawks dominated the 3rd, Alex DeBrincat would earn his 3rd point of the night via an empty-netter, despite doing his best to set up Patrick Kane repeatedly for goal #499. Instead, DeBrincat would score his 18th of the season, and Kane would be stuck on #498.

Detroit took 4 of their 6 road games, and while they didn’t quite sweep Western Canada, the Wings won 3 games over the course of 4 nights and 4 over 6 in the final portion of their road trip. Ultimately, the 4-1-and-1 road trip gives Detroit 9 of 12 on the road trip.

Now the Wings go home and play a set of back-to-backs on Tuesday/Wednesday (vs. the Islanders and Mammoth), they get another two-day break on the 18th and 19th, and they play matinees against Washington on the 20th and 21st. A game at home against Dallas will wrap up the pre-Christmas schedule.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Arvid Soderblom led their respective teams out onto the ice at the United Center:

The Blackhawks don’t post their full lineup, so we’ll rely on The Athletic’s Scott Powers for the Hawks’ lines…

And the Red Wings made two tweaks in bringing James van Riemsdyk and Jacob Bernard-Docker back into the lineup:

1ST PERIOD:

The Wings and Oilers dressed the following rosters and lineups:

GOAL: Off a fine pinch by Simon Edvinsson, Patrick Kane won a board battle at the right wing half boards, he pumped the puck down to Andrew Copp below the goal line, and Copp centered the puck to Alex DeBrincat, who helped overload the right wing, and DeBrincat jammed the puck behind Arvid Soderblom at the right goalpost some 55 seconds in.

Detroit 1, Chicago 0: DeBrincat (17) from Copp (13) and Kane (17) at 55 seconds of the 1st period.

GOAL: Will Murphy and Wyatt Kaiser bumbled the puck at the Hawks’ blueline, DeBrincat stole the puck on the left wing, lateralled it through Kaiser to Kane, and he ripped a shot through Soderblom’s glove to make it 2-0 at 4:35 of the 1st period.

Detroit 2, Chicago 0: Kane (6) from DeBrincat (19) at 4:35.

Chicago was pretty dominant after the Wings’ second goal, accumulating 11 shot attempts to Detroit’s 5 shots on Soderblom, but Gibson was sharp and the Wings’ defense held tough.

Chicago kept buzzing Detroit, tying the Wings’ 7 shot total, but…

PENALTY: Oliver Moore tripped Simon Edvinsson in the offensive zone, yielding a tripping penalty at 12:24 of the 1st period.

PENALTY: Colton Dach tripped up Andrew Copp on accident, but tripping is tripping at 15:30 of the 1st period.

The biggest play of the power play was Moritz Seider blubbing the puck at the blueline, yielding a breakaway for Ilya Mikheyev, and he skated in and fanned on the shot, giving Gibson and Seider a break.

2ND PERIOD:

PENALTY: Jacob Bernard-Docker swept down a Blackhawk forward at the side of the Red Wings’ net at 5:34 of the 2nd, and that’s a tripping penalty.

PENALTY: After a successful PK, Andre Burakovsky tripped up Marco Kasper as he fell on his own, and Burakovsky was called for tripping at 7:30 of the 2nd.

GOAL: Detroit may have flubbed their PP opportunities, but at 14:23 of the 2nd period, Axel Sandin Pellikka absolutely danced through the Hawks’ blueline and went against the grain at the left point, instead of passing to Ben Chiarot, he sent a pass to Lucas Raymond, and Raymond’s rebound found Emmitt Finnie, who jammed the puck into an open net at 14:23 of the 2nd.

Detroit 3, Chicago 0: Finnie (7) from Raymond (24) and Sandin Pellikka (9) at 14:23 2nd.

PENALTY: Emmitt Finnie was called for interference at 17:04 of the 2nd period, affording Chicago its 2nd power play.

Dylan Larkin had the best chance of the penalty-kill on a breakaway, but Soderblom shut the door.

The bad news was that Patrick Kane left the game after accidentally clipping the right goalpost behind Soderblom with his left skate/ankle.

3RD PERIOD:

Patrick Kane returned for the start of the 3rd period and started the period on a line with DeBrincat and Copp.

PENALTY: DeBrincat got caught tripping at 6:48 of the 3rd period, affording Chicago its 3rd power play.

GOALIE PULL: Chicago pulled Arvid Soderblom with 5:00 left in the 3rd.

GOAL: Alex DeBrincat would score an unassisted empty-net goal at 16:14, despite trying to set up Patrick Kane for goal #499, repeatedly.

Detroit 4, Chicago 0: DeBrincat (18) unassisted at 16:14 3rd period.

STATISTICS: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!