The Detroit Red Wings delivered a much better performance as they continued to try to gain a foothold inside the playoff picture cutoff.
That was especially important on Thursday, April 2, because their opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers, are one of the teams battling the Wings for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. Two goals from Alex DeBrincat and three points from Patrick Kane gave the Wings what they needed: A 4-2 victory at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The Wings (40-27-8) reached 88 points with seven games remaining.
Detroit Red Wings playoff picture
The Wings benefitted when the Columbus Blue Jackets, who held the second wild-card spot going into the night, lost to stay at 88 points with six games remaining. But Detroit’s victory wasn’t enough to move above the cutoff, because the Ottawa Senators defeated the Atlantic Division-leading Buffalo Sabres to also reach 88 points (seven games left), with the Senators holding the tiebreaker – 33 regulation victories to 29 for the Wings.
Empowered
The Wings showed they can start games with energy, which has been a key issue especially of late. They went on a power play six minutes in, and converted during their second one. With Sean Couturier in the box for tripping Dylan Larkin, Kane showed off his sublime skills, taking a pass from Seider and holding onto the puck until eyeing an open lane to DeBrincat, who was ready to rip the puck behind goalie Samuel Ersson, at 18:48 of the first period.
Pulling ahead
DeBrincat provied a lead late in the first period, but Tyson Foerster scored 31 seconds into the second period to even the score. Lucas Raymond restored Detroit’s lead late in the second period when Simon Edvinsson maneuvered the puck around Philly’s zone and sent the puck out front, where it bounced over to Raymond.
Kane added a goal to his earlier assist when he scored short-side midway through the third period, which began with the Flyers running up a 12-1 edge in shots.
Porter Martone, the former Michigan State star who just turned pro, recorded his first career NHL point when he fired a shot that deflected off Travis Konecny into the net at 10:29 of the third period, but seconds later, DeBrincat put the Wings back up by two goals when he picked up a loose puck along the goal line, spun around and angled the puck through traffic. Kane added his thrid point of the night with an assist on that goal, DeBrincat’s 39th this season. He needs one more score to become the first Red Wing with 40 goals since Marián Hossa did it in the 2008-09 season.
The Wings played with a short bench after defenseman Justin Faulk left in the second period with a lower-body injury.
Changes all around
There were some pretty significant changes to the lines and defense pairings. Up front, only the DeBrincat-Andrew Copp-Kane trio stayed intact. Mason Appleton – whose goal on Saturday was his first in 32 games – was moved up to play with Larkin (a game-time decision because he’s playing hurt) and Emmitt Finnie. Raymond, Larkin’s usual winger, was put on a line with J.T. Compher and David Perron, and Dominik Shine re-entered the lineup (bumping rookied Carter Mazur) on a line with James van Riemsdyk and Dominik Shine.
On the back end, Edvinsson was pulled off the top pairing and partnered instead with Faulk. Albert Johansson, a third-pairing guy, was partnered with Moritz Seider, and Ben Chiarot was partnered with Jacob Bernard-Docker.
Gibson again in net
Goalie John Gibson made his 13th consecutive start. He didn’t finish either of his previous two starts, which wasn’t a reflection on his play but on that of his teammates, with Cam Talbot subbing in after the first period Tuesday at the Pittsburgh Penguins and with about 13 minutes to play against the Flyers at home last Saturday. In all, Gibson started 12 of 13 games in March. That’s a heavy workload, but not unusual for a team’s No. 1 this time of year: In that same span, Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets) started 14 games, and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Adin Hill (Vegas Golden Knights) started 13 each.
Next up for the Red Wings
A Saturday matinee (12:30 p.m., ABC) at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers. Then it’s home to Little Caesars Arena to host the Minnesota Wild and Michigan alumnus Quinn Hughes on Sunday (1 p.m., TNT).
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Alex DeBrincat scores a pair to give Detroit Red Wings win over Flyers
Reporting by Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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