In an Original Six matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings faced off, with the Red Wings riding a five-game win streak. By the night’s end, the Red Wings extended their streak to six with a hard-fought 5-3 victory over their Original Six rival.
Game Recap
In a back-and-forth, fast-paced first period, the Red Wings got on the board first with two former Blackhawks linking up, with Patrick Kane making a smooth move through the neutral zone on a rush to eventually find Alex DeBrincat just inside the offensive zone. DeBrincat took a quick wrist shot that beat Petr Mrazek glove-side to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead five minutes into the game. The goal was DeBrincat’s 18th goal of the season to lead the Red Wings and pushed his point streak to eight games.
Another point streak continued, but this time from a Blackhawk. Connor Bedard set up Ryan Donato with a strong cross-ice pass for a one-timer that Red Wing netminder Cam Talbot did not stand much chance on to even things up at one aside halfway through the period. The assist pushed Bedard’s point streak to nine games and moved him within one point of 100 in his young career. The period ended in a 1-1 deadlock, with the Blackhawks holding a 5-4 shot lead.
The Red Wings dominated the second period. They scored less than a minute into the period on the power play, with Lucas Raymond on the receiving end of a tic-tac-toe play starting with Kane and DeBrincat to give the Red Wings a 2-1 lead. They controlled the pace of play and hemmed the Blackhawks in their zone for most of the period. After the middle stanza, the Red Wings held the shot lead, 21-7, outshooting the Blackhawks 17-2 in the second.
The third period started a lot like the second, with the Red Wings controlling the pace of play. It paid off when Erik Gustafsson made a strong play from the point with the puck to eventually find Andrew Copp out front for his first goal in 13 games to extend the Red Wing lead to 3-1 five minutes in. Albert Johansson added his first career NHL goal three minutes later off a nice backhanded, cross-ice pass from Raymond. But the Blackhawks fought back thanks to two goals from Teuvo Teravainen, making it a one-goal game before Marco Kasper capped the game off for the Red Wings with an empty-net goal for the final score of 5-3.
Talbot made 12 saves on 15 shots in the win, while Mrazek stopped 23 of 27 in the loss for the Blackhawks. Kane had his first three-point game of the season with three assists.
The Red Wings move to 19-18-4 and return to the ice on Sunday (Jan. 12) when they welcome in the Seattle Kraken. The Blackhawks fall to 14-26-2 and return home tomorrow for a big matchup against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
