PREVIEW: Red Wings wrap up two-game road trip on Friday against Maple Leafs

TORONTO – Seeking their third consecutive win, the Detroit Red Wings will play the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night to kick off a back-to-back set.

Puck drop between Detroit (6-5-1; 13 points) and Toronto (7-5-2; 16 points) is set for 7 p.m., with TV broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit. Ken Kal and Paul Woods will be joined by Daniella Bruce on the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

The Red Wings go north of the border after taking two points in their road-trip opener, a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. Alex DeBrincat and captain Dylan Larkin each had a goal and assist while goalie Cam Talbot made 28 saves for Detroit, which improved to 3-2-0 on the road this season.

Head coach Derek Lalonde said the Red Wings are playing with more consistency in their game as of late, which has led to better results.

“Obviously it’s easy to say that being on a two-game winning streak, and given the fact that we’ve given up two goals in six periods, but again I didn’t overly hate our group in the first stretch of the games,” Lalonde said. “We’d love some more consistency of course, but there’s a reason we stayed in this fight.”

On Friday morning, goalie Ville Husso was recalled from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions. Lalonde said Husso was brought back to the NHL club because netminder Alex Lyon “tweaked a little something” in practice on Thursday afternoon.

“Lower body, so obviously Ville will be backing up tonight,” Lalonde said about Lyon’s status. “Cam will be in net tonight and Ville will be in net tomorrow versus the Rangers.”

Husso has made one start with Detroit this season, and owns a 2-0-0 record with a 1.23 goals-against average, .958 save percentage and one shutout in three games with the Griffins.

“He went down and did his job,” Lalonde said about Husso. “A little adversity there, he dealt with a lower-body injury himself. He played Thursday, played well. We’re excited to see him play tomorrow.”

Husso said he feels his game is in a good place and is happy to be back with the Red Wings.

“It was a pretty clear message to just go out there, work hard, play a couple games and try to get better,” Husso said about being assigned to Grand Rapids last month. “It was a good time there, a good group of guys.”

And aside from Justin Holl replacing Jeff Petry on the back end, Lalonde said the Red Wings will have no other lineup changes against Toronto.

“Tyler [Motte] will not be in tonight,” Lalonde said. “I think it’s a little more to do with we’ve put together six really good periods, two of our better probably complete team games. Staying with the same forward group, but we’ll see how tonight goes. We might want to take advantage of the fresh legs tomorrow with the three-in-four, but we’ll get through tonight and go from there.”

Entering Friday’s Original Six matchup ranked second in the Atlantic Division, the Maple Leafs are coming off a 4-0 shutout win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Captain Auston Matthews, who has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 13 games this season, did not play against the Bruins because of an upper-body injury and will be out against the Red Wings.

In addition to pacing the club in points (16) and assists (14), Mitch Marner leads a quartet of Toronto players with double-digit point totals this season, as William Nylander (10-5—15), John Tavares (5-6—11) and Matthews have each reached the threshold. Netminder Anthony Stolarz is 5-2-2 with a 2.12 GAA, .928 SV% and one shutout in nine appearances this season.

“You hear things throughout the league and kind of watch them, but it feels like they’re paying a little more attention to detail in the defensive zone,” Patrick Kane said about the Maple Leafs. “I know they had a big win the other night against Boston, 4-0, without Auston. They’re probably feeling pretty confident after that game.”