Red Wings 2-Devils 3: Meier Leads New Jersey to Comeback Win over Detroit
A pair of Timo Meier goals helped the Devils overturn a 2-1 deficit and beat the Red Wings in New Jersey
The Detroit Red Wings fell 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils Saturday night in New Jersey. With the loss, Detroit fell to 16-14-4 in its final game before a three-day holiday break. That the Red Wings were unable to sustain the momentum from last night's win over the Flyers is disappointing if not entirely surprising given the tenuous nature of the victory.
Ultimately, Detroit needed one thing from this weekend: To snap its losing streak before the break. Despite falling in New Jersey, the Red Wings accomplished that objective and made it at last to the break its needed throughout a hectic, injury-riddled month.
First Period:
Despite a healthy New Jersey advantage on the shot-chart (11-6), the Red Wings and Devils traded goals in the first period.
Patrick Kane opened the scoring at the 4:22 mark of the period for his fifth goal and 10th point in 10 games as a Red Wing. The play began with Jake Walman gaining the zone, pulling up, then finding his partner Moritz Seider at the point. Seider sent a pass for Alex DeBrincat in the slot, and DeBrincat found his familiar running mate Kane at the back door for a one-timed goal that Vitek Vanacek was powerless to stop.
New Jersey's equalizer came a bit more than seven minutes later when Time Meier, having escaped Simon Edvinsson's notice, cleaned up a net-front scramble by tucking the puck past Michael Hutchinson on the forehand. Michael McLeod and Dawson Mercer picked up assists on the goal.
Detroit failed to convert on the period's lone power play (a Curtis Lazar trip on Walman at the 8:09 mark).
Second Period:
The first half of the second passed with the score remaining deadlocked at one, before Shayne Gostisbehere took advantage of a fortuitous bounce at the 10:31 mark to hammer home a clapper, giving the Red Wings a 2-1 lead.
After the fourth line established possession in the offensive zone, a Daniel Sprong shot attempt banked off the shin pad of John Marino and straight to Gostisbehere who one-timed past Vanacek.
Not long before the end of the period, there was a scary moment in the Red Wings' zone when Jeff Petry and Christian Fischer inadvertently collided head-to-head as they pursued the puck.
Both players needed to be attended to by the team's training staff on the ice before skating back to the locker room for further evaluation, and neither returned. With Olli Maatta, Klim Kostin, Ville Husso, and Alex Lyon all unavailable due to injury going into the evening, the last thing Detroit needed before its holiday break was more injuries.
When the horn sounded on the second, the Red Wings retained their 2-1 advantage, despite having been outshot for the second consecutive period (this time 15-10). New Jersey failed to convert on three power play opportunities, while Detroit had one chance with the man advantage of its own, but it too was killed off.
Third Period:
2:46 seconds into the third, Timo Meier equalized for the second time in the game. He threw the puck toward traffic at the goal mouth where it found its way through Hutchinson to tie the game at two.
The Red Wings had a quick chance to re-take the lead following a Erik Haula hooking minor, but before Detroit's power play expired, Lucas Raymond was sent to the box for goaltender interference. Derek Lalonde expressed emphatic disagreement with the call from the bench, because Raymond only crashed into Vanacek because his skates were tied up by Nathan Bastian.
While the Red Wings killed off Raymond's minor, New Jersey took its first lead of the game at the 12:44 mark with a Tyler Toffoli goal, deflecting home a Jesper Bratt point shot.
Detroit had a great chance to tie the game as the clocked ticked just under five minutes to play. With the Red Wings on the power play, a Daniel Sprong shot rung off the post, caroming out to David Perron. Perron had a yawning net to shoot out, but his shot sailed high.
Lalonde pulled Hutchinson for an extra attacker with about two minutes and fifteen seconds to play to chase a late six-on-five equalizer. With 1:43 remaining, Detroit used its timeout, and the Red Wings hulled around assistant coach Alex Tanguay, who diagrammed a plan of attack on a white board.
New Jersey did good work to deny Detroit the ability to set up in the offensive zone with its net empty, forcing play to the boards when the Red Wings did find their way to the offensive zone. With just over five seconds to play, the Devils blocked a Seider point shot the length of the night, and the game was over.