RECAP: Red Wings fall short on the road to Devils, 4-3

DETROIT -- In an Eastern Conference clash that featured feistiness and scuffles throughout, including after the final horn sounded, the Detroit Red Wings lost to the New Jersey Devils, 4-2, at Prudential Center on Monday night.

“I thought it was good that we stuck together as a team,” said James van Riemsdyk, who scored his second goal of the season and was playing in his 1,100th career NHL game. “It was definitely a hard-fought game between two good teams. Tempers raised a little bit at the end there, but we were going to stick together as a team if we felt we didn’t like the play that was made a little bit earlier in the [third] period there.”

The Red Wings (13-9-1; 27 points) outshot the Devils (14-7-1; 29 points) 35-19, with goalie Cam Talbot making 15 saves and netminder Jacob Markstrom finishing with 32.

"They're going to take liberties, and we have to push back," said captain Dylan Larkin, who netted his team-leading 13th goal of the season. "They're trying to bait us into taking a penalty and kind of icing the game that way. They took liberties. Our guy takes one early in the game and he stands up for it, and they don't do the same. It is what it is. I thought we showed good composure and still had a lot of looks there at the end."

Timo Meier's tip-in goal kicked off the scoring and gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 12:54 of the first period, but Alex DeBrincat responded for the Red Wings at 16:33 when he put home the rebound off Patrick Kane's shot from the right face-off circle that was initially stopped by Markstrom.

Moritz Seider recorded the secondary helper on DeBrincat’s 11th goal of the season, which tied it 1-1. In his last seven games, DeBrincat has collected 10 points (seven goals, three assists).

As the opening frame drew to a close, New Jersey scored two more goals in a span of 66 seconds -- first from captain Nico Hischier on a snap shot from the point at 17:58, then from Cody Glass at 19:04, as he redirected Luke Hughes’ shot from just below the blue line -- to trek ahead 3-1.

“There’s probably going to be a lot of talk about what we didn’t get or didn’t find down the stretch, but in my opinion, it’s what we gave up,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “There was too much free, especially early in the game.”

On a power play early in the second period, van Riemsdyk flipped a loose puck over Markstrom’s left pad from in front to get the Red Wings to 3-2 at 1:30. Andrew Copp and Emmitt Finnie were credited with the assists.

“I thought he played really well tonight,” McLellan said about van Riemsdyk. “He’s doing what we brought him here to do – get net front. He’s got real good hands in that area."

At 8:38 of the second period, Connor Brown jammed one home from up close after he got the puck from Dawson Mercer, who forced a turnover behind the Red Wings’ net, to push the Devils ahead 4-2.

Then Larkin, who was assisted by Lucas Raymond and Seider, sent a wrister behind Markstrom to make it 4-3 at 10:12 of the third period. Detroit’s 29-year-old captain has registered seven points (five goals, two assists) in his last eight contests.

Despite several good looks after pulling Talbot for the extra skater late in the game, the Red Wings unfortunately couldn’t find the tying goal they needed to pocket at least one point for their late-night flight home.

“I give the guys credit for sticking with it and fighting back,” McLellan said. “Maybe we did deserve better, but we can’t give up goals for free. We did tonight.”

NEXT UP: For its annual Thanksgiving Eve clash, Detroit will host the Nashville Predators at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on the Devils

“They skate real fast. They transition well. I think the emotions got going because everything was tight and close at the end. There were a couple of heavy hits. I think that’s where that came from. They play a fast game.”

McLellan on facing an early two-goal deficit

“It’s going to happen sometimes, but it’s how you give them up. As we talked earlier, the freebies are killers. If a team really earns it, and has done what it needs to do, you got to live with that and move on.”

Van Riemsdyk on sticking with it despite falling into a two-goal, first-period deficit

“That’s that consistency we need to find. Just more shift to shift, period to period, game to game. We’ve got it in us. The more we kind of find that consistent execution like that, we’ll be in really good shape.”