RECAP: Red Wings fall on the road to Rangers, 4-1

NEW YORK -- The Detroit Red Wings couldn’t mount a road comeback against the New York Rangers, dropping a 4-1 decision at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

Goalie Alex Lyon denied 24 shots in his first start of the season for Detroit (1-2-0; 2 points), while netminder Igor Shesterkin made 31 saves for New York (2-0-1; 5 points).

“This is going to be a frustrating game to watch back because we did some pretty good things,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Underlying numbers are going to be very positive. You put up a pretty good performance like that on the road against a team like this, and you got to start winning and finding ways to get some points.”

Alex Lafreniere got the home crowd on their feet when he one-timed a pass from Artemi Panarin and beat Lyon five-hole to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 11:45 of the first period.

Captain Dylan Larkin scored a buzzer-beating goal, with one second remaining in the first period to be exact, to tie it 1-1. After holding the puck in the offensive zone, Justin Holl found Larkin wide open in the slot before he snapped it home from his knees.

“Timely goal, great play,” Lalonde said. “Glad Justin produced some offense there. He gave us, again, a really good game on the back end.”

Patrick Kane also recorded his 814th career NHL assist with the secondary helper on Larkin’s second goal of the season, passing Mike Modano (813) for the second-most assists among U.S.-born players in league history.

Chris Kreider scored a power-play goal up close to put New York back in front 2-1 at 17:05 of the second period, redirecting Mika Zibanejad’s shot into the back of the net.

Lalonde said the Red Wings had a strong push to kick off the second period, but they couldn’t get one past Shesterkin.

“I really liked the first 15 minutes of our second [period], probably should have found a second goal,” Lalonde said. “Obviously the game is a lot different when you’re leading, but [Shesterkin] was the difference.”

Extending the Rangers’ lead to 3-1 at 4:51 of the third period, Reilly Smith received the puck from Zibanejad immediately after a face-off and found twine.

“I didn’t see much,” Lyon said about Smith’s goal. “I think I could have been a bit more active trying to find and locate it. That’s my job as well, so something to think about. Traffic is something maybe I try to get a little more comfortable with. Game reps help that a little bit, but just wish I could've saved it so we could’ve had an opportunity there to tie the game.”

The Red Wings weren't able to cut into the deficit, and Zibanejad put the game away for good with an empty-netter for the 4-1 final.

When asked about Detroit’s power play, which went 0-for-4, Larkin said the Red Wings will strive for more consistency moving forward.

“We just haven’t gotten enough quality looks at the net,” Larkin said. “I think we’ve done a good job setting up possession in the zone and we’ve moved the puck well. I also think that, for whatever reason right now, we do really well on the first power play then we kind of go to sleep for the rest of our opportunities. That can’t happen.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will look to take one back against New York at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.

POSTGAME

Lalonde on how much he can tinker with the Red Wings’ power play

“Probably get Gus [Erik Gustafsson] back there. Again, we have a lot of options. It’s just the hands don’t perfectly line up at times, but we just got to play through it. We’ll look at it back. Obviously the power play hasn’t produced, we only have one [power-play goal] on the year, but we’ve been having some looks.”

Lyon on his first start of the season

“Felt good, pretty confident. I think it maybe could have been a bit sharper, but I can work with that. Just got to keep grinding and get back to work. It was a good team. I thought we played a tight game. The guys battled hard and played well.”

Lalonde on Lyon’s performance

“Good, really good. Second period he was excellent. They had some Grade A’s. I’ll have to look at the first goal against, probably knowing him -- how competitive he is and he was working hard tonight -- I’m sure he wanted a couple of those back.”

Larkin on Shesterkin

“He was good. We got looks. I actually thought we had enough looks to win this hockey game. It just didn’t go in. Little bit of credit to Shesterkin, I don’t think we sifted enough pucks through traffic and made second and third opportunities. Something to learn from, and we got these guys again on Thursday.”