After travel issues en route, the Red Wings earned an enormous come-from-behind victory in Toronto behind a late Andrew Copp winner and steady performance in net from James Reimer
After travel issues en route, the Red Wings earned an enormous come-from-behind victory in Toronto behind a late Andrew Copp winner and steady performance in net from James Reimer
Sunday evening was bound to be a night to endure, not one to enjoy, for the Detroit Red Wings. Travel misadventures had the Red Wings scrambling before the puck dropped. Per a report from Trevor Thompson on the Bally Sports Detroit broadcast, the team's plane was unable to takeoff as planned on Saturday night.
That forced a rare regular season day-of flight, and Detroit did not arrive at Scotiabank Arena until 6 PM. Because of the unexpected change in travel schedule, the Red Wings will stay in Toronto after the game instead of flying into Florida (where they will play Tuesday), which they will instead do Monday.
Set against that disadvantageous backdrop, the Red Wings—on the strength of an Andrew Copp goal with 1:40 to play and a bounce-back performance from James Reimer—earned a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Copp called told Thompson it was both "one of the craziest regular season wins I've ever been a part of" and "one of the biggest regular season team wins I've ever been a part of." Representing a four-point swing in the Atlantic Division standings, the victory is more than just a feel good story.
Despite the adverse circumstances, Detroit picked up a win on the road against a Cup aspiring team, which it chases in the standings. In keeping with their 2024 trend, the Red Wings continued to distance themselves from a poor December—last month having turned the run-in to All-Star weekend an essential one to the team's playoff chase.
There was no better indicator of the victory's import nor its improbability than the Detroit bench's reaction to Lucas Raymond's empty net goal to clinch the game with 19 seconds remaining: the Red Wings hooted and laughed before a silenced Scotiabank Arena.
First Period
The first was an open period, befitting a pair of teams who had both been in action the night before. Though there were chances in both directions, Detroit controlled play to the tune of a 10-6 advantage in shots, despite having to kill off three Maple Leafs penalties while enjoying only one power play of its own.
The Red Wings' first great look of the game did not produce a shot on goal, when Dylan Larkin slipped behind the Toronto defense in the opening minutes, but T.J. Brodie intervened with a well-timed and executed stick-check to break up the chance.
The bad news for Detroit fans is that Patrick Kane was injured on just his second shift of the game, after being hit hard into the boards by Pontus Holmberg, then taking an awkward fall around the net after another collision with Holmberg moments later.
He went back to the locker room and would not return with what was officially termed a lower body injury. To state the obvious, any injury to Kane is a major concern, given the precarious state in which he signed with the Red Wings after hip resurfacing surgery.
The Leafs' best look of the frame came as the period approached its midpoint. With Jeff Petry in the box for hooking Tyler Bertuzzi, William Nylander beat Reimer with a shot, but it struck the cross bar and bounced to safety.
With Daniel Sprong in the box some five minutes later, the Red Wings found their best chance of the period, when a short-handed Larkin led in Michael Rasmussen with a perfectly placed two-on-one pass, only for the embattled Ilya Samsonov to come up with a pad save.
Despite quality offensive opportunities in both directions, the horn sounded on a scoreless first period.
Second Period
32 seconds into the second, Holmberg notched the game's first goal for the home team by redirecting a Morgan Rielly shot-pass past Reimer. He bounced back from the goal quickly, denying a Max Domi breakaway bid a minute later with Moritz Seider badgering Domi in hot pursuit.
Detroit would threaten as the period progressed, including a smooth rush set up from Larkin for Alex DeBrincat, and the Red Wings found eventually an equalizer with 4:21 to play. Larkin did the honors, continuing his infatuation with the bad angle snipe by picking a corner off a David Perron feed that was too quick for Samsonov to track.
The Leafs wasted little time in re-claiming the lead, however, with Mitch Marner converting a give-and-go with Bertuzzi for his 600th career point within three minutes of Larkin's goal. Marner is now the fastest player in franchise history to that milestone.
That 2-1 scoreline would hold until the end of the period. By the final horn, Toronto outshot the visitors 14-8 in the second.
Third Period
Before three minutes elapsed in the final period of regulation, Daniel Sprong tied the score once more—exploiting a broken stick from Rielly at the point to spring himself for a breakaway. With a stickless Rielly unable to intervene, Sprong tucked the puck past Samsonov—with whom he'd been teammates as Capitals—after pulling it to his backhand.
Just past the ten minute mark, the Red Wings showed their attention to defensive detail when Larkin batted down a pass from mid-air that would otherwise have sprung a breakaway, then Perron hustled for a straight-to-teaching-tape back check to deny a backdoor chance in short succession.
Not long after the clock ticked beneath two minutes to play, Andrew Copp—suddenly sizzling, having scored in three straight—showed a goalscorer's patience in picking the moment to snap the puck past Samsonov.
Raymond then clinched the game with his empty-netter in the game's final minute. Detroit had snatched its unlikely victory and all-important two points from the Leafs. With the final horn, Reimer completed a redemptive performance, stopping 23 of the 25 shots, reversing a nasty run of recent form. Those saves and the win in Toronto will feel even better because he spent six seasons in Toronto.
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