Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings 2, Rangers 3: Win Streak Snaps at Three as Detroit Falls Flat in New York Again
The Detroit Red Wings fell 3-2 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night, in a game that could've been worse if not for Ville Husso in goal
On Wednesday night, the Detroit Red Wings fell 3-2 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
It might have been an improvement from the 5-3 loss at the Garden earlier this month, when Detroit fell behind 5-0 by the second period but a modest one at best. Coach Derek Lalonde said yesterday that the Red Wings "just weren't competitive" and "not probably ready for the pace and depth of their line-up" in that earlier meeting.
In truth, were it not for Ville Husso in the Red Wing net, this scoreline could have looked much uglier, much quicker. Instead, Husso's efforts and a second period offensive outburst allowed Detroit to hang around, but, in the end, it wasn't enough to salvage so much as a point.
In the first, the Red Wings applied momentary early pressure. J.T. Compher orchestrated an extended stay in the offensive zone for the top line, and Robby Fabbri got Detroit's first shot on goal at the end of the game's first minute, about nine minutes sooner than it had come in the 5-3 loss.
However, David Perron went to the box for hooking after just a minute and 53 seconds, and while New York didn't score on the ensuing power play, it did afford the hosts control over the game it wouldn't relinquish for the remainder of the first. While neither side scored, the Rangers skated their way to an 11-7 advantage in shots for the period.
Their control of play would eventually be rewarded four minutes and 37 seconds into the second. K'Andre Miller intercepted an attempted Shayne Gostisbehere and led a counterattack into the Red Wing zone. Upon gaining entry, he dished wide left for Alexis Lafreniere, who sent a cross-ice pass for Artemi Panarin. Panarin's shot found the back of the net before Husso could push from his right post to his left.
Though it was a disappointing effort overall, Detroit did play its way into an outside chance at victory, based on a 23-second stretch in the middle of the second period.
It began late in a Red Wing power play, with Vincent Trochek in the box for tripping, and Detroit's second unit on the ice. Moritz Seider fired a sifter from the point, squeaking the puck past Ranger goaltender Igor Shesterkin with the help of an Andrew Copp screen.
It hadn't looked an especially dangerous power play up until Seider's goal, nor was the chance that produced the goal of particularly high quality, but the German defenseman had tied the game nonetheless.
On the ensuing shift, the trio of Copp, Robby Fabbri, and Jonatan Berggren got to work on the forecheck and gave the Red Wings their first lead of the season at MSG.
Berggren won a board battle over Blake Wheeler to make sure that the long-time Winnipeg Jet couldn't usher the puck out of his defensive zone. Copp and Fabbri then worked it into the slot, where Berggren recovered a loose puck then teed up a Fabbri shot, with Copp again providing a screen.
With the game not quite halfway over, Detroit led 2-1, and the team seemed to draw a temporary burst of energy from its newfound advantage. By the end of the second, it seemed the Red Wings might salvage two important points from a poor opening first period and change.
Instead, when the third opened, New York once again looked the faster, more purposeful, and more physical team. Beyond Klim Kostin taking exception to a Will Cuylle hit from behind on Gostisbehere, Detroit couldn't seem to match the Rangers' collective engagement.
K'Andre Miller tied the score at two nine minutes and 14 seconds into the third off a pretty setup from Mika Zibanajed. Six-and-a-half minutes later, Jimmy Vesey made it 3-2 to the Rangers with help from a rare lapse from an otherwise strong Husso.
Lafreniere fired a shot off the rush into Husso's chest, but the Red Wing netminder couldn't squeeze the puck. Instead, Vesey took two whacks at it—the first producing a rebound that arced into the air beyond Husso's reach, which Vesey batted home.
Down the stretch, the Red Wings squandered two chances to tie the score on the power play, with more than half of the latter spent at 6-on-4 with Husso lifted for an extra attacker as Detroit made its final push.
Led by its captain Jacob Trouba, New York denied the Red Wings' any access whatsoever to the slot, and the game's final seconds ticked away harmlessly, with Detroit unable to penetrate the Ranger defense.
In the end, the Red Wings got what they deserved from the game, which is to say zero points and a regulation loss.
If there were positives to be gleaned from the performance, they were twofold. The first was a strong showing from Husso in stopping 38 of New York's 41 shots. The second was the opportunism Detroit showed to hang around in this game into the late stages of the third against the East's leaders, despite being without captain Dylan Larkin being and playing poorly.
Nonetheless, Wednesday's performance represented a clear cessation of the exemplary form the Red Wings showed during the three-game winning streak with which they returned from their trip to Sweden.
Lalonde said of that run, "Boy, it would be really hard to pick apart any of our game," but plainly, that wasn't the case against the Rangers. The turnovers in the neutral zone and challenges with defensive zone coverage that plagued Detroit before they set off for Sweden recurred. This performance had much more in common with the malaise of the season's first trip to New York than it did with the start-to-finish dominance the team displayed against New Jersey and Boston.
Fortunately, the Red Wings will have an immediate chance at redemption in the form of a home date with the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night, from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.