RECAP: Red Wings fall to Devils, 5-1

DETROIT --The Detroit Red Wings opened the 2023 portion of their schedule with a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

The Red Wings and Devils played a scoreless opening frame before New Jersey scored two power-play goals 7:03 apart in the second period to take a 2-0 lead. After the Devils netted three straight tallies in the third, Lucas Raymond scored Detroit's lone goal on the man advantage with two minutes left in the game.
"I really think the way we played 5-on-5, we had a chance to win the hockey game," captain Dylan Larkin said. "The wheels fell off in the third, but we outshot them. But we just didn't get it past (Vitek) Vanecek on the 5-on-5. I think that's the story tonight."
Ville Husso made 22 saves for the Red Wings, while Robby Fabbri logged 14:54 of ice time in his season debut.
"Fabbs did a great job tonight coming in," Larkin said about Fabbri. "Pretty incredible thing that had happened tonight. All the guys are really happy for him. Once we get going here with our full lineup, we need to really not give up points like that."
The loss dropped Detroit to 16-13-7 on the season, while New Jersey improved to 24-11-3 (51 points).
NEXT UP: The Red Wings will kick off a weekend back-to-back against Atlantic Division opponents on Friday night, first hosting the Florida Panthers for a 7 p.m. puck drop at Little Caesars Arena. The first 7,500 fans in attendance will also receive a Red Wings-themed Felt Pennant, presented by DMC.

SCORING SUMMARY

New Jersey 1, Detroit 0 (9:17, 2nd period)
Jack Hughes slid the puck from inside the left faceoff circle to Dougie Hamilton, who skated to the high slot and scored on the man-advantage for the game's first goal.
New Jersey 2, Detroit 0 (16:20, 2nd period)
Nico Hischier got a piece of Hamilton's shot for a tip-in goal on New Jersey's second power play of the night.
New Jersey 3, Detroit 0 (1:51, 3rd period)
After Alexander Holtz retrieved the puck from along the boards, he raced past the Red Wings' blue line and threaded a pass to Miles Wood near the net. Wood's initial shot was blocked by Husso, but Holtz scooped up the rebound then set up Michael McLeod for a goal.
New Jersey 4, Detroit 0 (6:40, 3rd period)
Holtz notched his third goal of the season just seconds after a Devils' power play expired.
New Jersey 5, Detroit 0 (13:59, 3rd period)
Hughes gave New Jersey its largest lead of the game when he found the puck after a scramble in front of Detroit's net and put it past Husso.
Detroit 1, New Jersey 5 (18:00, 3rd period)
Raymond, assisted by Larkin and Mortiz Seider, scored his fifth power-play goal of the season to get Detroit on the board. It was Raymond's 10th goal of the campaign.

QUOTABLE

Head coach Derek Lalonde on where his club struggled against the Devils
"On the whole, an incredibly frustrating night in that poor special teams. A great performance by their goalie overshadowed a pretty good 5-on-5 game for us, which is frustrating. But, gotta execute on special teams. We did not."
Larkin on what he took away from Wednesday's game
"This game was a special-teams battle we lost. They scored on their power play pretty easily."
Larkin on the difficulty of playing from behind
"It's not sustainable. You have to play a full 60 minutes and try to get leads, especially on home ice. That's very important."