Detroit City Wire

The Detroit Red Wings secured a 4-3 shootout victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena. The win came after the Red Wings gave up a two-goal lead late in the third period but managed to prevail in the shootout.

Alex DeBrincat, who contributed a power-play goal and an assist, commented on the game’s momentum swings: “Obviously, we don’t want that to happen. But to battle through that, good PK in overtime and to win in a shootout is great. Two points is two points, and it doesn’t matter how you get them. I thought we battled well today.”

Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot made 35 saves during regulation and overtime, helping his team improve their record to 8-3-0 with 16 points for the season. This marks only the fifth time in franchise history that Detroit has won eight games in October. Los Angeles extended its point streak to seven games; their goalie Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots.

“These are never easy buildings to come into,” Talbot said. “A lot of travel and late nights, so to come out here and start the road trip off with two big wins is huge for the rest of the trip for sure.”

The first period ended scoreless despite both teams having power play opportunities. Midway through the second period, Alex Laferriere scored short-handed for Los Angeles at 12:39, but Detroit responded less than a minute later when DeBrincat tied it on the same power play.

“A couple of unfortunate bounces there on the power play, and they get a breakaway,” DeBrincat said about conceding first. “I think we’re pretty confident in our abilities on the power play, and to just not let it bother us. Go out there and put one in the net, so it was a good thing we could do it that quick and get the momentum back.”

Later in the second period, Kasper scored by deflecting Axel Sandin-Pellikka’s shot from near the blue line at 15:46—his third goal of this campaign—with Andrew Copp also assisting.

Kasper added another goal at 14:45 of the third period after finishing Mason Appleton’s pass during an odd-man rush; DeBrincat collected another assist.

“It was a really nice pass [by Appleton],” Kasper said. “He probably has eyes in the back of his head or something, I don’t know. That was a good pass. I just tried to put it in the net.”

With time running out in regulation, Corey Perry scored twice for Los Angeles within 40 seconds—once at 17:47 with a wrist shot and again at 18:27 on a deflection—to tie it up.

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan addressed how those goals happened: “We didn’t win any type of important face-offs down the stretch… Even in overtime, and we have pretty good centermen. That was a little disappointing. But after that first one, they took a shot and both our D were playing up and they got underneath us.”

In overtime, Kevin Fiala appeared to score for Los Angeles during a power play but video review overturned it due to contact with Talbot.

“I came down the hallway and, truth be told, my stick didn’t make it down the hallway,” Talbot recalled about waiting for confirmation on Fiala’s disallowed goal. “It was in a few pieces, then I heard Todd say, ‘Hold on, Talbs. We’re going to go out there and challenge it.’ So then we all kind of just funneled back into the tunnel. I knew that Kev came right through my crease and I was kind of spun so I was hoping for that call and we got it.”

The shootout saw Lucas Raymond score Detroit’s only goal while Talbot stopped all three Kings’ attempts.

“I give the guys credit for sticking with it,” McLellan said. “Recovering, finding a way to get the lead and then recover after we gave it up.”

Detroit will continue its California road trip Friday against Anaheim at Honda Center.

Kasper described learning that overtime had not ended with Fiala's apparent winner: “We were all leaving, then we saw the replay… You kind of saw he was in the crease… Good for us that it wasn’t a goal and we got to win...”

On DeBrincat’s recent performance Kasper said: “He’s a great player and a great scorer so I tried to put him in good situations today on power play.”

Talbot commented on Detroit's start this season: “We’re getting scoring up and down lineup... Larks has been elite all season... different guys are stepping up every night…”