"We're Fighting for Our Lives, and Every Point is Massive Right Now": Red Wings React to 5-3 Win in San Jose
David Perron powers Detroit to a 5-3 road win over the Sharks
On the first stop of their California tour, the Detroit Red Wings—powered by a pair of David Perron goals in the third period—earned a 5-3 win over the Sharks in San Jose.
After the first, the game was tied at one on goals from Daniel Sprong and Fabian Zetterlund.
After the second, the game was tied at two, with J.T. Compher and Justin Bailey having chipped in a goal each.
Alexander Barabanov lifted San Jose to a 3-2 lead as the period neared its midpoint, only for Perron to equalize then thrust the Red Wings into the lead. Perron's first came on the power play, barely a minute after Barabonov's marker.
The game-winner from Perron came from a bad angle with just a minute and a half to play in regulation.
Michael Rasmussen then deposited an empty-netter to secure the 5-3 road victory.
Here's what Derek Lalonde and Alex Lyon—who stopped 22 of the 25 shots he faced—had to say about the victory:
Alex Lyon
On the win:
"I think we're fighting for our lives, and every point is massive right now. Huge victory for us on the road."
On San Jose's push:
"I just feel like they were playing good hockey. They've got good players over there. I think especially in this league, you can't get fooled into looking at the records because they have a lot of extremely dangerous talented players, and they played really hard...Amazing bounce back by the guys phyiscally, emotionally. DP was awesome tonight. Larks was all over the place. The D corps was great in front of me."
On personal performance:
"I feel good. I feel like I'm still building. Wasn't perfect tonight by any means, but never gonna apologize for a win. That's how I operate, so move on just try to be crisper...Can't be angry after a victory."
On impact of making third straight start:
"It's awesome. Every goalie wants to play every night I think. I enjoy that. I like a big workload, and it's good. I feel like I'm connecting more and more with the D men every game, and we're kinda getting on the same page. We've got two more huge games on the road. They're not gonna be easy. And so we gotta be ready."
Derek Lalonde
On answering San Jose's push in the third period:
"Great response in the third. I know we're sitting here, [and] we've run two of our last three, but our three most recent losses, we literally tied 2-2 in the third in all three and found a way to lose. In this situation, we were 2-2, gave up the third, and hung in there, found a way to get a win in regulation. Never easy to win in this league, especially on the road, so we'll certainly take it."
On Perron's performance:
"DP was excellent tonight, but his line was driving. Our best push, our best complete hockey was probably the 15 minutes to start the second, and that was the line that was driving us. They pushed us tonight, they drove us, and they got rewarded with some offense."
On second power play unit (which scored twice):
"The second unit was huge. To go two-for-four on the road, 50%, we'll certainly take that, and a lot of it was generated from that Compher unit. That was huge, needed it."
On Lyon's performance:
"Excellent. Really good. Like many teams at home, they're gonna get a push. They're a desperate team. They're a carefree team. They go, go, go and play hard, and you're gonna be on your heels at times. He bailed us out."
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