Detroit grabbed a two-goal second-period lead before ultimately falling to the Anaheim Ducks, 6-4, on Friday. According to Lalonde, he felt his club took its foot off the gas in the middle frame, helping the Ducks climb back into the game.
“It’s hard to win in this league,” Lalonde said. “It’s extremely hard to build a two-goal lead. I think [we] just took a little bit of a breather and got a little loose with [our] game. It’s almost identical to the Pittsburgh look, where [we] started to turn some pucks over and made life hard on [ourselves]. [On Friday], we couldn’t stop the momentum like we did [on Wednesday].”
Lalonde said it was difficult to immediately assess goalie Alex Lyon’s 23-save night in Anaheim. It was Lyon’s first start with the Red Wings since Oct. 30 after being sidelined with a lower-body injury.
“I’d have to look back because obviously [Lyon] had some spectacular saves and a couple seeing-eye pucks that got through,” Lalonde said. “Hard to evaluate with some of the looks and volume they had on the power play.”
Marco Kasper was a bright spot in Friday’s loss, scoring on the power play for his first career NHL goal and recording an assist for his first career multi-point game. The 20-year-old forward became the first Red Wings skater to score his first career goal on the power play since Jonatan Berggren – who also netted a man-advantage tally on Friday -- did so on Nov. 15, 2022, in Anaheim.
“I’m happy for Marco,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “We’re all not happy with the result. We needed to win that hockey game, and we didn’t. We were in position to win to do it, and we didn’t come through with two points.”
