RECAP: Detroit halts three-game skid with ‘rewarding’ 6-3 win against Anaheim

DETROIT -- Seeing the fruits of their labor from their last two practice days pay off, the Detroit Red Wings snapped a three-game losing streak with an offensive outburst in a 6-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.

“For us this week, it was getting in the goalie’s eyes, getting in front of the net and working hard there,” said Alex DeBrincat, who recorded two goals and an assist for his first multi-goal and sixth multi-point game of the season. “I thought we did a good job of that, but we got to keep that up and make it hard on their goalies.”

John Gibson made 15 saves on 17 shots but didn’t return for the third period, which saw Cam Talbot stop 10 of 11 shots in relief to help Detroit (10-7-0; 20 points) reach the 10-win mark in 17-or-fewer games for the first time since 2010-11. Comparatively, Lukas Dostal finished with 27 saves for Anaheim (11-5-1; 23 points).

“Gibby left after the second with an upper-body issue,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “He’s still going to be evaluated tonight, and we’ll see how he is in the morning.”

The first period was chippy and scoreless, with Detroit and Anaheim each putting up 10 shots on goal. Gibson impressed throughout the opening frame, including making a sliding save on Troy Terry’s shot from the left face-off circle at 8:24 and denying Alex Killorn’s breakaway attempt at 19:55, to keep his former club off the scoreboard.

Almost six minutes into the second period, Detroit finally broke through on its third power play of the night when Moritz Seider wristed a shot from the point that got behind Dostal through traffic for a 1-0 lead at 5:57. Lucas Raymond and Patrick Kane picked up the assists on Seider’s second goal of the season.

The Ducks quickly tied it back on a goal from Cutter Gauthier, who cleaned up a loose puck on a 2-on-1 rush, to make it 1-1 at 7:35 of the middle frame.

Pushing the Red Wings right back in front, Michael Rasmussen ripped one top shelf from the slot after he deked Jackson LaCombe to make it 2-1 at 12:42 of the second period. The assists on Rasmussen’s second goal of the campaign went to Andrew Copp and Jonatan Berggren.

“I thought Ras played his best game of the season today for a lot of different reasons,” McLellan said. “One, the goal. He looked confident, big, strong, held onto pucks, was physical. For him, that’s a real big confidence booster. We’re happy for him and glad that he did that. We need that going forward night after night because he can play that way.”

After Chris Krieder finished off LaCombe’s backhand dish just 2:12 later to make it 2-2, Axel Sandin-Pellikka’s point shot got through a group of bodies and into the back of the net to give Detroit a 3-2 lead at 15:33 of the second period. It was the 20-year-old rookie defenseman’s second goal of the season, with the assists going to Berggren and Ben Chiarot.

“The emphasis in practice was work ethic and getting in the goalie’s eyes, and I think we did a good job of that,” DeBrincat said. “That third goal, Copper’s in front of the net and it squeaks through.”

Four seconds into the Red Wings’ fourth power play of the game, DeBrincat redirected Seider’s point shot for his first goal of the night to push them ahead 4-2 just 50 seconds into the final frame. The secondary helper went to Kane, who recorded his 1,350th career point and passed Mats Sundin (1,349) for sole possession of 31st place on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.

The back-and-forth action continued, as Mikael Granlund got a piece of Ian Moore’s shot from the point at 4:33 to bring Anaheim back within 4-3. Only 33 seconds later, captain Dylan Larkin capped off a 2-man breakaway with Raymond to get it to 5-3. A secondary assist on Larkin’s club-leading 10th goal of the season went to DeBrincat.

“I think we can do a better job of just staying composed, especially after we score,” Seider said. “I think we just kind of gave it right back to them twice. That’s obviously a little bit of a momentum killer, but we found a way to stay in the game, stay hungry, get pucks behind their defensemen and really work our way back into that game. That’s a little thing to be very proud of.”

At 17:59 of the third period, DeBrincat tacked on an empty-net goal for the 6-3 final. Larkin registered the lone assist on DeBrincat’s second tally of the night and sixth on the year.

“It's rewarding, but we can’t just take the lessons one day and forget about it next week,” McLellan pointed out. “That lesson is supposed to stay with us now.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will conclude its four-game homestand with an Atlantic Division matchup against the Buffalo Sabres at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on Thursday’s win and moving forward

““It’s been miserable around the last few days, which it should be. We expect more from each other, staff included, and it alleviates the misery for a while, but we’ve got to get back on the ice again tomorrow. We know we have a tough weekend coming up.”

DeBrincat on Detroit scoring six goals against Anaheim

“It’s huge. Past couple of games, we struggled to put it in the net. We’ve had our chances, but just wasn’t going in. It’s just nice to put a few in the net, hopefully keep that going and get that confidence that we know we can play with good teams.”

DeBrincat on seeing Talbot replace Gibson

“We’re confident in both goalies. I don’t think that really affects us much. Obviously, we want to see Gibby be alright but we trust Talbs in there. He did a great job in the third period, really kept us in it.”

Seider on the special-teams battle on Thursday

“We’re a good team all around. We just needed a bounce or two, and I think that’s what happened tonight. We really stuck to our structure and really tried to simplify things on both sides of the ice. I think it worked. We just tried to stay positive throughout the whole night. I’m really happy with the result.”