Detroit City Wire

The Detroit Red Wings' five-game winning streak ended with a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Wednesday night. This marks Detroit's first defeat since Opening Night nearly two weeks ago.

Goaltender John Gibson made his third consecutive start for Detroit, recording 27 saves. Buffalo’s Colten Ellis, making his NHL debut, also stopped 27 shots and earned the win.

Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said, “I don’t think we were prepared for the pace that the game was played at. A lot of times, we’ve been dictating the pace.”

Both teams were scoreless in the first period, with Detroit successfully killing off two early Buffalo power plays. J.T. Compher commented on the slow start: “The start wasn’t good enough. Anytime you take two penalties in the first minutes of the game, it’s going to give the other team a lot of confidence and they get playing their game before we even get most of our guys on the ice.”

Compher scored Detroit’s opening goal three minutes into the second period after capitalizing on a rebound from Albert Johansson’s shot. Jonatan Berggren provided a secondary assist.

Buffalo responded later in the second period with goals from Jason Zucker and Tyson Kozak to take a 2-1 lead. Emmitt Finnie tied it for Detroit late in the period, finishing a pass from captain Dylan Larkin for his third goal in two games. Larkin extended his season-opening point streak to seven games, while Lucas Raymond pushed his own streak to three.

“Larks made a good play,” Finnie said. “He was driving wide, and I just found some quiet ice and he made a nice pass.” Finnie became the first Red Wings player since Raymond and Moritz Seider in 2021-22 to record at least six points through his first seven NHL games.

For Larkin, this is now his second-longest season-opening point streak after an eight-game run last year.

In the third period, Jack Quinn scored on a power play to put Buffalo ahead 3-2. McLellan remarked, “Eventually, teams are going to score on the power play. It doesn’t matter how good your penalty kill has been. They’re going to find a hole and shoot it into the net. That was the decider.”

Josh Doan added another goal for Buffalo midway through the final frame for a 4-2 advantage.

“A couple breaks here and there, and it goes in our net,” Alex DeBrincat said. “We got to be better for a full 60. It’s a good thing we have a game tomorrow. We can rebound and come out better.”

Detroit will face off against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Thursday night.

McLellan reflected on Detroit’s performance in the opening period: “I don’t think we got to our game real quick. Obviously, we’re shorthanded 30 seconds into the game. Get through that kill, then all of a sudden, we’re back in the box again…I thought we somewhat wasted the first period based on that outcome.”

Compher addressed whether Wednesday’s loss underscored consistency: “Todd has been preaching that ever since we started last year and during Training Camp this year. It’s got to be every game. When you give away periods or parts of periods in this League, it’s really hard to win.”

DeBrincat discussed how early penalties affected momentum: “Honestly, I think we could have gotten some momentum off that -- killing some penalties early. Obviously, it’s hard for some guys to find their legs, but I think you get momentum from kills. We all should have been ready, and we weren’t necessarily ready in the first period. Took us a bit to get our legs going. It’s on us. We got to be ready to play.”