Red Wings top Sabres in shootout, get first win in 10 games

BUFFALO -- Dylan Larkin scored twice and in the shootout, and the Detroit Red Wings got their first win in 10 games with a 4-3 victory against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou scored in the shootout for Detroit after Buffalo forward Evan Rodrigues tied it 3-3 with 47 seconds left in the third period.
"It feels good," Larkin said. "We had a good start, good first two periods, and then I think we just let our foot off the gas there a little bit in the third. … Wish we made it a little bit easier for us tonight and little easier on goalie Jonathan Bernier] there, but we stuck it out, played good defensively in overtime, and won it in a shootout. Two points is two points right now for us."
[WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Sabres highlights]
Tyler Bertuzzi scored, and Bernier made 29 saves for the Red Wings (13-38-4), who were 0-8-1 in their previous nine games.
Jonas Johansson made 18 saves in his first NHL start for the Sabres (23-23-8), who have lost two straight and are 1-4-1 in their past six games.
"We definitely cannot be pleased with losing in [a shootout] here today," Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said. "The storyline was against the opportunities that we had; we had a lot of opportunities in the first two periods where we were unable to finish. … It's the failed opportunities, the grit we need to finish on those opportunities, that is definitely the reason for this loss today.
"It was a good reaction in the third coming back from two down, it was a good reaction to score 6-on-5 to bring it into overtime under the circumstances, but we shouldn't have been in those circumstances."
Larkin gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 4:23 of the first period when his shot from along the left boards went through the legs of Luke Glendening, who was screening Johansson.

Larkin made it 2-0 with 0.2 seconds left in the first, converting on a backhand off a 2-on-1.
"I heard the guys yelling, 'Shoot it'," Larkin said. "When [Sabres forward Sam Reinhart] beat me, I looked up and it was about 12, 13 seconds so I knew there wasn't much, but I thought I'd go for it and [Robby Fabbri] made a great play over. It was a big goal for our team."
Jimmy Vesey scored on the rebound of his redirection under Bernier's left pad to make it 2-1 at 5:48 of the third period, and Scott Wilson scored his first of the season to tie it 2-2 at 8:29 with a redirection of Colin Miller's pass in the slot.

"We waited too long to turn it on," Rodrigues said. "We fought our way back, unfortunately don't get the two points, but we had chances."
Bertuzzi put the Red Wings ahead 3-2 at 13:56 with a one-timer in front on the power play.

"If you never get rewarded, it's hard to keep your confidence," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "It's hard to believe in what you're doing, it's hard to do those things. It's really important to be able to get rewarded. That's one of the hardest challenges we've had this year. Even when we've done things right, we haven't gotten rewarded.
"We weren't perfect tonight, we've got lots to work on, lots to get better at, but I thought the effort level was great. It was good to get rewarded for a fairly good process."

They said it

"Just to come in the room and see smiles and listen to some music. … We've got a guy playing his first game tonight (defenseman Gustav Lindstrom) and I thought he did really well, and [Bernier's] been so big for us lately and he played another solid game, made the saves he had to and kept us in it, really. Just a total team win, everyone feels good right now. We've got to keep that going." -- Red Wings center Dylan Larkin
"It's never easy. We didn't do our job that we set out to do when we woke up this morning, so it's disappointing." -- Sabres forward Sam Reinhart

Need to know

Lindstrom was minus-1 in 12:07 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Fabbri had two assists to reach 100 points in his 202nd NHL game. … Sabres forward Jack Eichel's point streak ended at four games.

What's next

Red Wings:At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-O, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Sabres:At the New York Rangers on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, MSG, MSG-B, NHL.TV)