Dylan Larkin OT Winner Leads Red Wings to Must-Have Victory over Maple Leafs
Dylan Larkin scored the 5-4 overtime winner against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, giving the Red Wings a must-have victory to stay alive in the playoff race
Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports - Dylan Larkin OT Winner Leads Red Wings to Must-Have Victory over Maple LeafsThe Red Wings’ needed a win.
It didn’t matter that a four-goal first period put them in the driver’s seat of Saturday night’s game against Toronto. It didn’t matter that they squandered the resulting 4-1 lead away. Nor did it matter that they secured an overtime point. Detroit — two points behind Philadelphia and Washington for a wild card spot — needed two points to catch up. It needed a win, and only a win.
With the season on the line, Detroit (39-32-9) got the win it needed thanks to a Dylan Larkin overtime winner. In beating the Maple Leafs (46-24-10), Detroit kept its playoff dreams alive for at least another game in a 5-4 overtime win.
Such a meaningful game brought out a strong start from each side, but the Maple Leafs got on the board first, nine minutes into the game on the power play. With Joe Veleno in the penalty box for boarding Timothy Lilljegren, Toronto forward Mitch Marner scored a one-timer off a feed from William Nylander.
But the Red Wings knew the stakes, and they responded a minute and a half later via Alex DeBrincat. The goal snapped a seven-game goalless streak for DeBrincat — just his second in the past 20 games — but it also marked the 11th point since he reunited with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond on the top line. The night before, DeBrincat had fed Raymond on a similar two-on-one break, and Raymond repaid the favor against the Maple Leafs.
With his slump broken, DeBrincat kept going. With a 2-1 lead thanks to Simon Edvinsson’s first goal of the season, DeBrincat built an even greater lead when he fired home a J.T. Compher rebound on the power play to make it 3-1. And soon after, David Perron made it 4-1 heading into the first intermission.
Such a strong start was exactly the type of performance Detroit needed with its season on the line. Too many times in recent weeks, the Red Wings had played tight games that they just barely lost — most notably a 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals and a 6-5 overtime loss to Pittsburgh in their previous two games. With such a strong start to lift their backs off the wall, Detroit built in some breathing room.
The Red Wings also needed their big lead for a different reason — they blew it, in about an 11-minute stretch of the second period.
Nine minutes into the second period, Toronto forward Nick Robertson cut the lead to 4-2. Then, Patrick Kane took a double-minor penalty for high sticking. Auston Matthews scored his 69th goal of the season on that advantage to make it 4-3, and John Tavares tied it up with 2:38 left in the second period.
What was once a massive lead for Detroit had dwindled down to nothing. Its playoff hopes had fallen with it.
Every minute of the third period — every shot, every save — felt monumental as each team tried to win. The Red Wings couldn’t afford a slip-up. They couldn’t afford to let another game slip.
Such a journey was made difficult by a last-minute penalty kill, when Patrick Kane took another high-sticking penalty. The Red Wings killed the penalty, preventing a back-breaking goal in the final minutes of the game.
With that success, Detroit found a little luck. Maple Leafs forward Max Domi took a tripping penalty in the final minute of the game, and the Red Wings took a power play into overtime.
Then, Larkin pulled his heroics. Screening on the power play — a gritty, painful position where goals come way of sacrifice — Detroit’s captain led the way. He banged home a rebound for the 5-4 win, and his team lived to play another day.
With the win, the Red Wings remain tied with Washington and Philadelphia for the final wild card spot. Those two teams will play against each other to end the season, meaning the Red Wings will need at least three points out of their next two games to make the playoffs.
Even that isn’t guaranteed, but the Red Wings nonetheless live to play another day chasing their playoff dreams. Because Detroit absolutely had to have a win Saturday night, and they found it thanks to Larkin.
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