Red Wings end skid on Lucas Raymond's last-minute goal against Islanders

DETROIT — Returning home proved to be the tonic the Red Wings needed, at least for one game.

After a disappointing road trip, the Wings were pointing to this stretch of home games to reset their season and Thursday proved to be just the medicine, as Jonatan Berggren and Lucas Raymond scored late goals sending the Wings to a 2-1 victory.

Raymond scored with 51.1 seconds left in regulation, his third goal of the season, breaking a 1-1 tie. Dylan Larkin found Raymond alone near the hashmarks and Raymond beat goaltender Ilya Sorokin.

Berggren tied the game 1-1 at 15:14, scoring his third goal after getting an outlet pass from J.T. Compher. Berggren flew down the wing and sent a shot over Sorokin's right shoulder from the hashmarks.

It was a gutsy effort from a Wings team that was again bottled up at some points, had some quality chances, but couldn't beat Sorokin.

Simon Holmsrom deflected a point shot from Scott Mayfield at 5:57 of the first period, Holmstrom's third goal for the Islanders, opening the scoring. But from there, the Wings allowed precious little in terms of quality chances to an Islanders team struggling offensively.

Goaltender Alex Lyon stopped 21 shots to earn the victory, including a couple of big saves late in the third period, while Sorokin stopped 29 for the Islanders.

The Wings (8-9-2) won for the second time in seven games (2-4-1) and briefly doused the storm clouds surrounding coach Derek Lalonde and their roster. The Wings host Boston on Saturday before traveling to Long Island Monday to face the Islanders.

After Thursday's morning skate Lalonde talked about how the narrative would have been much different if the Wings had flipped one of the winnable games on the West Coast, mostly a game in Anaheim in which the Wings led in the third period.

"It's unbelievable, honestly," said Lalonde after the morning skate. "We win a good game in Pittsburgh and we're (ahead) in Anaheim and if we close out that game we're talking about a winning a road trip. Especially early on everything gets exaggerated, it's just the reality of it. There's something to the reality of that .500 line. I know it sounds crazy but you flip that Anaheim game and you're 8-8 and we're not talking about the ups and downs.

"But it's the reality of it. It's more about playing well (Thursday) and go from there."

The Wings improved to 4-4-1 at Little Caesars Arena, where four of the next five games remain.

"You have to be (a good home team)," Lalonde said. "We're sitting here below that (playoff) line not where we want to be a game under .500 (at home), but we'll take flirting with .500 or be around .500 on the road. We'll take that, but you have to win at home. Last year was a fairly successful year and we found ourselves battling in the standings and we took care of home ice.

"It'll be a point of emphasis."

But it wasn't easy against an Islanders team that is overcoming some key injuries with their hard defensive, checking, grinding style of play.

"Against the Islanders you're not going to get easy offense," Lalonde said. "You have to work for it. They're making a concerted effort to check and they've done that and that's why you see these really low scoring type of games. They have world class goaltending and there's definitely a formula and recipe there."