RECAP: After taking ‘one on the chin’ the night prior, Red Wings respond with 2-1 road victory over Rangers

NEW YORK – Putting the frustration from the front half of their weekend back-to-back set behind them, the Detroit Red Wings held off the New York Rangers for a hard-fought 2-1 win at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.

“It was big to bounce back from yesterday,” said Lucas Raymond, who scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period and recorded an assist for his third straight multi-point game as well as seventh multi-point performance of the campaign. “I think this was our most complete game in a long time and everyone contributed in their own way. It was a big one for us, for sure.”

Goalie Cam Talbot made 18 saves for Detroit (11-7-1; 23 points), which extended its point streak to three consecutive games. Making his second start against the Red Wings in the last 12 days, netminder Jonathan Quick turned away 40 shots for New York (10-8-2; 22 points).

“Obviously, we took one on the chin yesterday and were looking for some of that resilience,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. ‘We saw that in our group, and I thought that was our best overall team game for a full 60 minutes. We checked for our chances, didn’t have to play with a lot of carelessness or recklessness, and found a way."

As a mostly uneventful first period was nearing its end, the Rangers were able to establish sustained pressure and the Red Wings found themselves on the penalty kill at 18:41. That special-teams unit didn’t back down from the challenge, standing tall until the opening frame ended and during the brief carry-over time to open the second.

At 4:04 of the middle frame, Detroit on its first power play of the night -- Vladislav Gavrikov was whistled for tripping Andrew Copp -- but couldn’t break scoreless tie.

But when the Red Wings went back on the man advantage a little later in the second period, they capitalized. Alex DeBrincat poked in a loose puck off the rebound of Raymond’s shot to grab a 1-0 lead at 9:30, with a secondary assist also going to Patrick Kane.

Not only does DeBrincat have nine goals in 19 games this season, he's lit the lamp on the power play in three consecutive games for the second time this season.

New York quickly answered with a man-advantage goal of its own – only 2:29 later – when Mika Zibanejad buried a rebound at the doorstep while Talbot was screened to tie it 1-1.

“We didn’t try to force anything,” Talbot said. “Sometimes, when those games are 1-1, maybe you cheat for offense or try to get the winner, but we just stuck to our game plan. We kept playing our game and tight defensively. We didn’t let any of them get in behind us and took our chances when we got them."

Raymond’s clutch goal came with 3:47 remaining in the game. Mortiz Seider poked the puck away from Alexis Lafrenière and it made its way up along the wall to captain Dylan Larkin, who threaded a pass across the neutral zone to Raymond. The 23-year-old Swedish forward skated through the right face-off circle and around the net into the left face-off circle before he fired the puck past Quick for his sixth of the season and the eventual 2-1 final.

"He was really good tonight," Raymond said about Quick. "He was good the last time we played him too. He's a tough goalie to beat."

Seider added that the way Detroit closed out Sunday’s Original Six clash, especially considering how Saturday’s overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres at Little Caesars Arena happened, was “a very big step in the right direction.”

“In my opinion, we were in control of the game for most of the night,” Seider said. “We knew we were going to get a chance, and obviously a great performance by Ray tonight.”

NEXT UP: Following a scheduled off-day on Monday, the Red Wings will host the Seattle Kraken at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night to begin a three-game homestand.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on Raymond's recent stretch

"I think Razor, the last three or four games, looks like Razor to me. Obviously, the injiury and coming back from it wasn't easy. I thought he had a tenacity to him, a physical tenacity to him, the last three or four games that we probably hadn't seen earlier, which is a good sign."

Talbot on the message following Saturday’s overtime loss

“Obviously, nobody was happy last night. I’ll leave what we said in the dressing room to the guys that were in here last night, but we weren’t happy with the way we closed that one out. And tonight, we closed this one out the way that we should have. That’s what good teams do. They respond and bounce back, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Talbot on the Red Wings holding strong in the third period

“They didn’t let me do a whole lot in the third period there. The difference between last night and tonight, the mental fortitude to come back and play a game like that after what had happened in the third period last night – I give the guys a ton of credit here. They came out and established our game early. The power play got us a big one there and Ray gets a huge one at the end of the game, but that doesn’t happen if we don’t check the way that we do. This is a tough building to do that in. We played a heck of a hockey game tonight.”

Seider on Detroit's defensive game in New York

“We let Talbs see the puck. We did a really good job of boxing out…We had some big blocks. Overall, just a really good team effort especially in the D-zone. They’re going to get their chances or somebody might make a mistake, but we were there to pick each other up.”