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Red Wings overpower Blackhawks for sixth consecutive win

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on

Published in Hockey

DETROIT — The Red Wings continue to win games and are doing it in increasingly impressive fashion.

They stretched their win streak to six games Friday, defeating Chicago, 5-3.

Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond (power play), Andrew Copp and Albert Johansson (first NHL goal) scored goals, and Patrick Kane assisted on three goals, as the Wings matched their six-game win streak from almost a year ago (Feb. 17-27, 2024). Goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 12 shots.

The Wings overpowered Chicago (14-26-2), which owns the NHL's worst record, at times. The Wings outshot the Blackhawks, 28-15, including a 17-2 edge in the second period.

With the victory, the Wings moved to within two points (44-42) of an Eastern Conference wild-card position.

Goals from Copp and Johansson 2 minutes, 7 seconds apart early in the third period broke the game open.

With the Wings clinging to a 2-1 lead, Copp scored his eighth goal at the 5-minute mark, giving the Wings some cushion. Erik Gustafsson skated the puck down to near the goal line, found his path blocked, and found Copp near the edge of the crease. Copp found an opening through goaltender Petr Mrazek and a Blackhawks defender in the crease area.

Johansson made it 4-1 shortly after. Raymond delivered a perfect backhand pass through the slot to a pinching Johansson, who lifted a shot past Mrazek at 7:07 for Johansson's first goal.

But Chicago's Teuvo Teravainen scored his eighth and ninth goals to cut the margin to 4-3 before Marco Kasper's empty-net goal (his third goal) at 18:21 sealed the victory.

"We've had a nice run but we're still looking from the outside of the playoff run," said defenseman Justin Holl after Friday's morning skate. "We have a little positive momentum going and we like what we're doing as a team. We're having fun with it and trying to keep it going."

 

The Wings broke a 1-1 tie when Raymond scored a power-play goal 41 seconds into the second period.

Raymond had an easy tap-in after Kane and DeBrincat began the tic-tac-toe passing play, and Raymond open near the net for his 17th goal.

DeBrincat opened the game's scoring with his team-leading 18th goal in the first period. Kane carried the puck into the zone and found DeBrincat free driving between the hashmarks. DeBrincat snapped a shot past Mrazek at 4:26, giving the Wings a 1-0 lead.

But Chicago tied the game, thanks to the passing of reigning Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) winner Connor Bedard.

Ryan Donato was the beneficiary of a splendid dot-to-dot pass from Bedard, with Donato unleashing a one-timer past Talbot at 10:56 for his 12th goal.

The Wings are 6-1-0 since the arrival of new coach Todd McLellan, playing their best hockey of the season.

"We've been playing simple, getting forwards the puck and not spending a lot of time in our zone," said Holl, adding McLellan has provided as spark. "Anytime you get a new voice in the room, there's going to be change and the group has responded well. We're trying to show every game what we can do."

McLellan remarked after the morning skate how the Wings are beginning to believe with each passing victory.

"We've established some energy, a belief system that seems to be growing each day," said McLellan, adding a difficult upcoming four-game road trip hasn't been mentioned. "Not even talking about where we're going next week (Florida, Tampa, Dallas, Philadelphia), just tonight. That's all we're looking at."


©2025 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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