Despite a valiant third-period comeback bid, the Red Wings fall 5-3 to the visiting Islanders, snapping a season-long win streak
Despite a valiant third-period comeback bid, the Red Wings fall 5-3 to the visiting Islanders, snapping a season-long win streak
Detroit, MI—The Red Wings lead the NHL in third-period comeback victories with 11, but on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, two equalizers in the final 20 minutes of play weren't enough to turn around an early deficit. Instead, Detroit fell 5-3 at the hands of the visiting Islanders, snapping the six-game win streak they brought into the game.
On the strength of goals from Brock Nelson and Casey Cizikas, New York took a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period. It wasn't that the Red Wings played a terrible period at either end of the rink, but their game lacked the vigor that characterized their play during the now defunct run of wins.
"I think the difference in this game was our lack of intensity to start the game," assessed Derek Lalonde from the post-game podium. "We didn't give them much, but they were winning 50-50s. When their first goal is a turnover like that, a stick lift for a goal, we're not engaged or locked in. I thought we were better as the game went on, but [the Islanders are] too good of a team to lose 20 minutes on."
If that win streak had lent an air of invincibility to the Red Wings, Thursday night's game provided a reminder of their fallibility. Beyond the poor first period, Detroit suffered at the hands of the forecheck and stingy neutral zone that has typified Islanders hockey across multiple coaching staffs over the last half decade.
To David Perron, chief among Detroit's issues was a failure to dump pucks into the offensive zone and get their own forecheck going, the fastest route to combating New York's game.
"It felt like we were a little sluggish at the start," he said, echoing the message of his head coach. "We weren't putting pucks in the right area with the way they check in the neutral zone, the way they come back to do their breakouts. We talked about it, we saw video, but we didn't as players do a good enough job to put it in the right areas, get on it, and get our forecheck going...I know we have some personnel, some guys that will make plays, but I think it can put the onus on the rest of us to do that even more."
Olli Maatta—who doubled his goal total for the season with a two-goal game—saw a similar flaw in the Red Wings' game, asserting that counteracting the aggressive Islander forecheck had to begin with the sort of dump-ins Perron advocated. "It starts with our forecheck first of all," he said. "If we give them easy outs, they come up with speed, and they're hunting us. So I think flipping it in, like DP mentioned, our puck placement, where we put the pucks, and how we forecheck that basically determines where you're gonna play."
Despite the disadvantageous start, Detroit looked on multiple occasions in the third poised for another late-game turnaround. The Red Wings entered the period down 2-1, and they found the goal after just 10 seconds. An excellent effort from Dylan Larkin in the neutral zone secured the puck from Isles defenseman Adam Pelech. Larkin then led Patrick Kane into the offensive zone, and Kane proceeded to beat Ilya Sorokin cleanly with a wrister to the blocker side. Kane now has points in all 10 games (six goals and nine assists) since returning from injury coming out of the All-Star break.
However, within five minutes of Kane's goal, the Islanders were back in front on the strength of Nelson's second of the night, this time on the power play. That process repeated itself midway through the period, when Olli Maatta notched his second goal of the night to tie the game at three, only for Mat Barzal to restore New York's lead three minutes and nine seconds later.
The Red Wings best chance to get back to level terms came with just over four minutes to play, when Alex DeBrincat and Kane found themselves with a two-on-one from low in the offensive zone. DeBrincat found Kane with a pass at the back door, but Kane's shot pinged off the post and to safety. With 35.7 seconds to play, Pierre Engvall confirmed the result by hitting the empty net to bring the final tally to 5-3 in the visitors favor.
"There's no doubt in my mind if we started the first period like we started the second period we play from the lead all night instead of chasing it," said Lalonde. And with that in mind, Thursday's defeat serves as a lesson to the surging Red Wings.
Even after the recent six-game heater, Detroit's margins remain thin in the crowded Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference playoff race. As Lalonde highlighted, the Red Wings can ill-afford lapses in intensity, particularly against opponents in that same chase for the postseason. Fortunately for Detroit, an opportunity for redemption will come in two days time when the Florida Panthers—the Atlantic's most potent force at the moment—visit LCA for a Saturday matinee.
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