RECAP: Red Wings ‘put good foot forward’ with 4-1 victory over Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- In taking a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Wednesday night, the Detroit Red Wings scored timely goals, played a sound defensive game and got another strong start from goalie Cam Talbot to pick up their second straight win.

“This one feels good,” said Talbot, who made 28 saves to record his fourth win of the season. “We talked about coming in here and establishing a good road game. We got six of our next seven [games] on the road, so that started tonight. We needed to put a good foot forward, and we did that tonight.”

Head coach Derek Lalonde said while the Red Wings (6-5-1; 13 points) weren’t perfect against the Blackhawks (5-8-1; 11 points), his club ultimately took care of business.

“It was just one of those nights where we had the puck a lot, so I think we got a little careless with it,” Lalonde said. “But on the whole, we’ll certainly take that – winning on the road, especially in this league.”

Detroit was outshot 10-6 in the opening frame but went into the visiting dressing room with a 1-0 lead at the first intermission, thanks to Alex DeBrincat. He pounced on a rebound at the left post after Chicago netminder Petr Mrazek kicked aside captain Dylan Larkin’s attempt to open the scoring with two seconds left in the period.

Extending his point streak to three straight games with his fourth first-period goal of the season, DeBrincat has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in Detroit's first 12 games.

“[DeBrincat’s goal] was huge in the fact that we didn’t have a very good period,” Lalonde said. “The group is pretty good about judging themselves on performance. We had some looks in the first, we’ll take probably the chances for versus chances against in that period, but we weren’t great. We were a little flat and didn’t manage the puck very well. To get to come out of that period up 1-0 was huge.”

Captain Nick Foligno responded for the Blackhawks when he stuffed in a pass from Tyler Bertuzzi backdoor on Talbot to tie it 1-1 at 8:42 of the second period.

Dousing Chicago’s momentum, Larkin got the puck from DeBrincat before he showed off his impressive speed by skating around Isaak Phillips and using a backhand-to-forehand move to beat Mrazek, which put the Red Wings up 2-1 at 12:27 of the second period.

Larkin, who leads the Red Wings with eight goals, has 10 points in 12 games this season. He's also scored the game-winning goal in back-to-back contests for the first time since Feb. 11-13, 2023.

“I didn't know that I was," Larkin said about his three-game goal streak. “It's just going in. You just try to, when that’s happening, keep doing the right thing. Definitely playing with good players. Alex and I were finding each other tonight. That was nice. Usually Kaner is finding me as well.”

Joe Veleno scored his first goal of the season at 3:01 of the third period, redirecting a shot by Moritz Seider off Nolan Allan into the back of the net to push Detroit’s lead to 3-1. Michael Rasmussen had the secondary assist on the play, bringing his point total to three (two goals, one assist) in six games since Oct. 24.

“I liked the play,” Lalonde said about Veleno’s goal. “Sometimes we get so mesmerized in looking for a pass. We work on low to high, getting to the net…I’m glad we got rewarded for it.”

With the Blackhawks pulling Mrazek for the extra skater late in regulation, Andrew Copp cashed in on an empty net to make it 4-1 with 2:13 remaining. Mrazek finished with 21 saves for Chicago.

The lone assist on Copp’s fifth goal of the season went to Lucas Raymond, who pushed his point streak to three straight games and leads Detroit with 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in 12 contests.

Larkin said the Red Wings have benefitted from good goaltending and special teams in their last two games, and views Wednesday's win as another solid effort to build on.

“We didn’t get the goal [on the man advantage] that we wanted [on Wednesday], but at least we generated some momentum,” Larkin said. “That was huge. We were really good on the penalty kill and just didn’t give much. Our goaltending was good. I thought that was the best third period we played, the best 60 minutes we’ve played all season."

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will drop the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Lalonde on how Detroit has used its practice time to focus on improving the penalty kill

“I would say that fortunate week of practice, after giving up three to the Rangers that one day, we were able to rep it and get some routes on it. From that point on, it’s gradually improved. We’ve needed it of late and it’s been a big part of our success.”

Larkin on how the Red Wings are building on their game

“We didn’t have a great start. I feel like that’s a little bit with the schedule of playing a lot of games, then a week where we don’t really play that much and then we’re practicing at home. I thought we got our feet moving in the second and third [periods], and we were really good. All four lines contributed tonight.”

Talbot on his confidence level right now

“I feel really good right now. Managing workloads and stuff like that has been kind of nice not to play too much. Every time I get in there, I feel pretty fresh. I know what I can do when I’m fresh and healthy, so confidence level is where it needs to be right now. Anytime you get that as a goaltender, you want to ride it as long as you can.”

Talbot on Detroit’s defensive play its last two games

“When we were in our forecheck, in our sets and D-zone you can tell that we’re not giving up what we were at the beginning on the year. We clean up a few turnovers here and there, and I think we’d be in an even better spot. I give our guys a ton of credit. We’ve really tightened up lately, and you can see the results are coming because of it.”