Detroit City Wire

The Detroit Red Wings secured a 3-2 shootout victory against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Sunday night. The win marks the second time in three games that Detroit has needed more than regulation to earn two points on the road.

“It’s never an easy win in this building,” said goaltender Cam Talbot, who recorded 16 saves and stopped all four shootout attempts. “You know you’re going to have to come in and compete, limit their chances off the rush and gut out a win here. That’s exactly what we did.”

Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond each scored, extending their point streaks to four games. The Red Wings improved their record to 9-4-0 (18 points) and remain undefeated (8-0-0) when leading after two periods this season. Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves for San Jose, which now holds a 4-6-3 record (11 points).

“Happy to get out of here with two points,” said Detroit head coach McLellan. “San Jose is obviously retooling and rebuilding a little bit, but they just took points from Colorado and New Jersey. A tough team to play against.”

Detroit had two power-play opportunities in the first period but failed to score, as both teams remained goalless at intermission.

“I thought we kind of had a mixed bag to start,” McLellan said. “We weren’t playing the type of game that we wanted to play. We were getting a little bit cute with stickhandling a lot in the offensive zone. In the second period, we started to throw stuff towards the net, and it opened up for us a little bit.”

Raymond opened scoring late in the second period after receiving a pass from Axel Sandin-Pellikka via captain Dylan Larkin’s setup. Raymond maneuvered around Dmitry Orlov before beating Nedeljkovic for his fourth goal of the season.

San Jose tied it early in the third period when Jeff Skinner tipped Philipp Kurashev's shot past Talbot.

Seider put Detroit ahead again midway through the third with his first goal of the year, assisted by Simon Edvinsson and Alex DeBrincat—who extended his own point streak to six games.

“He’s dynamic,” McLellan said about Seider. “He can go anywhere he wants with the puck. I’m glad that he got that shot through because some of his shots have been getting blocked lately. Maybe that’ll encourage him to use the shot that he has. It’s a powerful one and often accurate. When there’s traffic there, it’s going to be hard to stop. He got a reward tonight, and I’d like to think he’ll keep doing what he did.”

With just over three minutes left in regulation, Sam Dickinson scored his first NHL goal for San Jose off Will Smith's assist, sending the game into overtime.

“They’ve got some pretty good players,” McLellan said regarding San Jose's late-game efforts. “They capitalized on a few of their opportunities, and all of a sudden it’s a game.”

The game was decided in shootout after neither team scored during overtime; James van Riemsdyk converted Detroit's only successful attempt—his first career shootout try as a Red Wing—to clinch victory on their western road trip.

“A huge game for us to set ourselves up nicely to have a really strong road trip,” van Riemsdyk said. “Just finding a way to get the extra point there was huge for us, and we got to keep things rolling along here.”

Detroit will next face off against Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on Detroit’s face-off performance:

“Important to start with the puck. It’s hard on skill when they’re in their battling. Celebrini and Wennberg took a lot of their face-offs. That initial battle, if you don’t win it, it’s draining. We talked about trying to wear them down a little bit, them having played last night, so a good job in the circle.”

van Riemsdyk on Sunday’s approach:

“That’s a recipe, to be honest, no matter what for us, is just trying to play pretty predictable, direct straightforward and just kind of let our abilities take over from that. I find that’s when we’re playing our best, is when we’re all predictable”

van Riemsdyk on Talbot:

“Him and Gibby have both been rocks for us for whole year. Tonight, what a game he played. I think both of those guys, we have a lot of confidence in them. Just the way they’ve been playing, you can feel through the bench and the team.”

Talbot on another recent shootout:

“It’s not the way you always want to end a game, but anytime you’re able to pot one or two and just go out there, try to stay patient, make the saves and give the guys a chance. I feel like I’ve been able to do that the past couple of games.”