RECAP: Larkin, Talbot help Red Wings put on 'good performance at home' to defeat Sabres, 2-1

DETROIT -- A week ago, the Detroit Red Wings fell to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. But on Saturday night, thanks to two power-play goals from captain Dylan Larkin, the Red Wings returned the favor with a 2-1 win over the Sabres at Little Caesars Arena.

“[Saturday’s win] was something we needed, especially with how things have been going and kind of the roller coaster we’ve been on,” said Larkin, who recorded his first multi-point game of the season. “Still not perfect, but good performance at home and good win on home ice. We got our matchups tonight, and we played them tough.”

Goalie Cam Talbot also shined, making 31 saves on 32 shots to help the Red Wings (5-5-1; 11 points) snap a three-game winless streak. Netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen denied 21 shots for the Sabres (4-7-1; 9 points), who have lost three in a row.

“That’s a quality win,” Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde said. “That’s a really good offensive team. It’s a small sample size, but they’re trending as one of the top offensive teams in a lot of categories. The power play was good tonight. The penalty kill 2-for-2.”

Making a pair of point-blank saves in the opening minutes of the first period, Talbot said those stops were important "for the whole team's psyche."

“You get scored on first shift at home, things can turn bad in a hurry," Talbot said. "But that’s what you want from yourself. You want to make those saves, keep the puck out and keep the momentum on our side to start the game. That’s all I was trying to do there, and put everything I could in front of it. Sometimes you get lucky.”

Talbot unfortunately couldn’t stop Alex Tuch a little later in the first period, as the forward forced a turnover and raced down the ice all alone before snapping a shot below the Detroit goaltender's blocker for a short-handed goal to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 11:39.

“I put the one goal against on myself,” Larkin said. “Turning that puck over, pretty unacceptable.”

Larkin evened the score for the Red Wings at 7:49 of the second period, taking a pass from Patrick Kane and getting a shot through Luukkonen from below the right face-off circle to make it 1-1.

It marked Kane's 294th career NHL power-play assist, passing Mathieu Schneider for the seventh most by a U.S.-born player in NHL history. The goal was Larkin's 218th of his career, passing Nick Libett for 13th place on Detroit's all-time list.

Less than seven minutes later, the 28-year-old captain struck again on the man advantage with a bar-down shot from the slot to give the Red Wings a 2-1 lead. Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond had the assists on Larkin’s seventh goal of the season.

“He’s our go-to,” Lalonde said about Larkin, who has eight points (seven goals, one assist) in 11 games this season. “When we find a quality game like this, since I’ve been here, it’s usually driven by Dylan.”

Luukkonen went to the Sabres’ bench at 17:35 of the third period for the 6-on-4 advantage, but the Red Wings stood strong the rest of the way to secure the win. According to Lalonde, there was plenty he liked from Detroit’s play during the final frame.

“Not giving up a single goal, that’s a positive,” Lalonde said. “We gave up 13 shots. I’d have to look back on what Grade-As we had, I don’t feel like there was a ton there. That’s a positive third. We had a couple looks ourselves. With that said, when we did give them opportunity, Cam was there.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will start a two-game road trip on Wednesday night, first battling the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Larkin on how much confidence that the Red Wings’ power play has right now

“A lot of confidence. It had to be built. We got the five guys on the ice that are out there, and you see the confidence now. You see the puck movement. You see the plays. We have five really talented players out there. We move around a lot, there’s a lot of movement, which is good. Tonight [that] was probably on display even more so because of the way they kill. We’re finding passing lanes, winning pucks back and then attacking the net. It’s huge when your power play can go out there and provide two goals like that.”

Larkin on Talbot

“Truly the difference-maker. He got us two points. Unbelievable stops there all night.”

Larkin on Detroit’s all-around performance on Saturday

“It definitely helps winning it….They got some zone time, but a lot of it was on the outside. That was a big area of emphasis for us. Keep things out of the slot, keep them to the outside and let our goalies handle what comes from the point, and they do that.”

Talbot on how he felt against the Sabres

“I wanted that goal back as much as [Larkin] did. You get a turnover like that, you want to be the guy to bail him out. I wanted to pick him up. I was upset at myself that I wasn’t able to do that, but I felt good the rest of the night. Guys played great in front of me; easy game to kind of read off the guys in front. If I did leave something there, they were there to clear it out in front for me.”