The Detroit Red Wings welcomed the Anaheim Ducks for a Thursday night matchup. In a tightly contested, physical, and back-and-forth game, the Red Wings pulled off a 6-3 victory.
Game Recap
The opening 20 minutes of the game saw both netminders, John Gibson (Red Wings) and Lukas Dostal (Ducks), see plenty of action. Both goalies saw 10 shots apiece, but kept things deadlocked at zero. Both teams played with great pace, and the period was a physical one, with plenty of scrums taking place after the whistle.
The game opened up significantly in the middle 20 minutes. The Red Wings opened the scoring on the power play, with Moritz Seider scoring his second of the season off a shot from the point that deflected off Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe and beat Dostal. The lead was short-lived, though, as the Ducks quickly answered back less than two minutes later on a two-on-one for Beckett Sennecke and Cutter Gauthier. A broken play on the rush led to a failed pass attempt by Sennecke that still ended up on Gauthier’s stick, who buried a shot into a wide-open net to even things at 1-1 halfway through the period.
The goal-scoring continued in the second period, with Michael Rasmussen ripping a quick wrist shot past Dostal off a nice stretch pass by Andrew Copp to give the Red Wings once again a short-lived lead. The Ducks answered two minutes later off another rush that LaCombe led and found Chris Kreider coming in late for a quick shot to beat Gibson. It was then the Red Wings’ turn to answer quickly, regaining the lead less than a minute later, with Axel Sandin-Pellikka being the beneficiary of traffic in front of Dostal and scoring from the point on a shot that deflected off the netminder’s stick and into the back of the net, to give the Red Wings a 3-2 lead that held up going into the third period.
The Red Wings extended their lead quickly in the third period on a power play goal within the first minute of the period off a tipped shot by Alex DeBrincat in front of Dostal to give the Red Wings a 4-2 lead. Another deflection worked in the favor of the Ducks, with Mikael Granlund redirecting a point shot from Ian Moore past Cam Talbot to close the gap back to one at 4-3. Dylan Larkin answered back quickly, scoring just over 30 seconds after Granlund’s goal off a two-man breakaway with Lucas Raymond to restore the Red Wings’ two-goal lead. DeBrincat added an empty net goal to give the Red Wings a 6-3 victory.
In the win, Gibson made 15 saves on 17 shots in the first two periods before being replaced by Talbot in the third period. Talbot made 10 saves on 11 shots faced. For the Ducks, Dostal made 27 saves on 32 shots.
What’s Next
In the win, the Red Wings improve to 10-7-0 and return to the ice when they take on the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night (Nov. 13). The Ducks fall to 11-5-1 and remain on the road, heading to Minnesota to face the Wild on Saturday night.
