Red Wings score 5, top Utah Hockey Club despite being limited to 14 shots

SALT LAKE CITY -- Alex DeBrincat had a goal and an assist, and the Detroit Red Wings scored five straight times in a 5-1 win against the Utah Hockey Club at Delta Center on Monday.

Detroit scored three of its five goals in the third period despite being limited to a total of 14 shots on goal.

“I thought it was ugly from both sides,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “The conditions were pretty rough, slushy, snowy, puck bouncing all over the place. There were times in the game where I thought that hurt us and times in the game when it helped us. They couldn't connect on some plays as well. But we found a way to stick with an ugly night.”

Elmer Soderblom and Marco Kasper also scored for the Red Wings (33-31-6), who had lost eight of 10 (2-8-0) and ended a six-game road losing streak. Petr Mrazek made one save before leaving at 1:38 of the first period with an undisclosed injury. Alex Lyon stopped 16 of 17 shots in relief.

"He won't be available for us the rest of this trip, obviously,” McLellan said of Mrazek’s status. “We've only got one game tomorrow, and he wasn't scheduled to play. So, when we get back to Detroit, he'll get evaluated. We've got the other two that we can play."

Said Lyon: “I'm just staying ready every day, and so when you stay ready, you don't really have to get ready. We just fought and I think that's the mentality that we have as a team right now. We've just got to fight and see what happens, scratch and claw, and just see where it takes us. That's what we're going to do.”

The Red Wings pulled within three points of the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Montreal has played one fewer game.

Dylan Guenther scored for Utah (32-28-11), which had won two in a row and three of four. Karel Vejmelka allowed four goals on 13 shots.

“I want more shooting mentality, more shots on them, more broken plays,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “Give them credit, they played well defensively, which we did as well. ... The way we played defensively was all right, but offensively, I think we could have simplified it.”

Utah remained six points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card in the West with one game in hand.

“There's never going to be any quit in this room ever,” Utah forward Clayton Keller said. “We're going to fight all the way until the end. We're going to try to win every single game from here on out. You never know what can happen, so we're going to stay motivated, learn from this game and attack this next road trip.”

Guenther gave Utah a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 3:46 of the first period, scoring on a one-timer past Lyon off a pass from Keller.

Soderblom tied it 1-1 at 5:08 on a feed from Vladimir Tarasenko.

Kasper put Detroit ahead 2-1 at 1:34 of the second period after the puck went off his stick and bounced off Utah forward Lawson Crouse into the net.

Austin Watson extended it to 3-1 at 9:51 of the third period, deflecting a shot by Simon Edvinsson, who had two assists. It was Watson’s first goal since Dec. 31, 2023, with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I just tried to get a little stick on it so, you never know what happens,” Watson said. "That feels really good, obviously being a Michigan kid and scoring for the Red Wings is pretty special, but just this year in general, being down in Grand Rapids (of the American Hockey League) for the majority of the year and kind of grinding and waiting my turn. To be here this time of year battling with these guys and to get rewarded like that, it definitely feels good."

DeBrincat made it 4-1 at 17:06 with an empty-net goal, and Tyler Motte scored at 18:32 for the 5-1 final.

“I thought once we figured out how we were going to play under these conditions and not be cute and try and make plays, it was just sloshing it around and throwing pucks at the net, who knows what can happen,” McLellan said. “You look at Kasper's goal, you look at Watson's goal, it almost isn't even hockey. You just throw it there and hope for something to happen, and that was the case.”

NOTES: Patrick Kane (18 goals, 32 assists) had an assist to become the first Red Wings player at the age of 36 or older to record 50 points in a season since Henrik Zetterberg in 2017-18 (11 goals, 45 assists). ... Guenther’s goal was both the 50th of his career and his 100th NHL point.