Late Kane goal sends Red Wings to 6-4 win over Flyers

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on Dec 18, 2024

Published in Hockey

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DETROIT — Being home for most of the holidays is beginning to look like a real good thing for the Red Wings.

The Wings made it two straight wins at Little Caesars Arena Wednesday with a 6-4 victory over Philadelphia.

Patrick Kane broke a 4-4 tie, ending a personal 10-game drought, to send the Wings to the victory. Kane took advantage of a bad Flyers change, took a pass from Moritz Seider, and whistled a shot past goaltender Samuel Ersson at 7:22 of the third period for his fourth goal.

Lucas Raymond scored his 13th goal, tying Alex DeBrincat for the team lead (DeBrincat scored earlier) with an empty-net goal at 18:48 to make it 6-4.

Michael Rasmussen (his sixth goal) and Joe Veleno (second goal) scored 1:22 apart late in the second period, breaking a 2-2 tie.

But the Flyers scored two goals early in the third period, from Ryan Poehling and Owen Tippett just 1:49 apart, evening the game at 4-4.

The Wings (13-14-4) continue their homestand Friday against Montreal, then play in Montreal the next night in a back-to-back. The Wings host St. Louis Monday, the last game before the NHL holiday break, then play three more home games to close out the 2024 portion of the schedule.

Stuck near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but still very much in the thick of the race because of the tightness of the standings, the Wings were pointing to this home stretch as an opportunity to vault upward.

So far, so good.

J.T. Compher (power play) and Alex DeBrincat added the Wings' other goals, while goaltender Alex Lyon stopped 15 shots.

It was Lyon's first game since Nov. 25. Lyon was sidelined the past several weeks with a lower-body injury.

"It always stinks (not playing)," said Lyon after Tuesday's practice. "Obviously being healthy is tied to your livelihood so it's an important factor. It's important staying healthy, but at the same time things happen. I'm really happy to be going now.

"When you have an injury and a setback later, there's nothing worse. You just want to nip it in the bud, make sure everything is good. Obviously mentally, you don't want to just feel it out. I want to try to come in, hit the ground running and pick up where I left off. That's where my focus is right now, just being the best goalie version of myself that I can be for this team."

The goals from Rasmussen and Veleno changed the complexion of the game.

Rasmussen snapped the tie with his goal at 16:05. Compher won the draw and got the puck to Rasmussen, who one-timed a shot past goalie Ersson.

The Wings made it a two-goal lead with Veleno's second goal of the season. Veleno intercepted a pass near the blue line and sprinted on a two-on-none rush with Christian Fischer, who made the final pass to Veleno to beat a defenseless Ersson.

The victory for the Wings avenged a 4-1 loss to the Flyers last week in Philadelphia.

"We have to play with a lot more energy," said forward Andrew Copp Tuesday morning. "It was a pretty quiet night in Philly (last week) and we have to find a way to create our own jam. We didn't get enough pucks on net to start and didn't cause enough chaos. We were to the outside too much. We have to get more, not necessarily traffic, but just more pressure around the net."

The Flyers opened the scoring with Travis Konecny scoring his 16th goal just 1:06 into the game.

Sean Couturier intercepted Simon Edvinsson's pass, which led to a Konecny breakway down the middle of the ice, and capping it with a backhander through Lyon.

But the Wings tied it, while on a four-minute high-sticking penalty against the Flyers.

After a sluggish start to the power play, Compher ended a 22-game goal drought redirecting a shot from Dylan Larkin near the crease.

DeBrincat gave the Wings a 2-1 lead midway in the second period with his team-leading 13th goal. DeBrincat and Kane got free for a two-on-one rush and Kane fed DeBrincat for the goal at 10:15.

But the Flyers again rallied to tie, just 25 seconds later, as Noah Cates scored his third goal with a slot between the hashmarks.

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