Detroit — The Detroit Red Wings finally woke up Saturday night but it was too late.
The Wings almost made a startling comeback but came up short in a 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
And though it made things quite interesting, and the sellout crowd at Little Caesars Arena finally had a chance to get loud, even the Wings weren’t fooled.
Mason Appleton, Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond scored goals 2 minutes, 33 seconds apart late in the third period, cutting Philadelphia’s lead to 4-3, but only after the Wings were outplayed for most of the evening.
The Flyers’ Sean Couturier’s empty-net goal gave the Flyers a 5-3 lead and ended any hopes of a miracle, and especially perplexing considering how well the Wings played 24 hours earlier in Buffalo.
BOX SCORE: Flyers 5, Red Wings 3
But coach Todd McLellan kept everything in perspective.
“Disappointed in that performance,” McLellan said. “We’re not getting tricked, either, by those three goals at the end of the night that made it close That was a disappointing response after a big win for us in Buffalo. There’s more in a lot of guys. Some guys came to compete but not think at all.
“The stuff we did is training camp material and where are we, Game 72? So, I’m disappointed.”
McLellan felt if the game was a little tighter, the final Wings’ flurry may not have even occurred.
“If that game is 3-1, that doesn’t happen because the other team was done too,” McLellan said. “I can’t sit here and knock the Philadelphia Flyers because they just drilled us, but at that point they know they’ve won the game and it kind of changes things a little bit. Now give our guys some credit, they went out but it was easier hockey than it was for the first 55 minutes and we took advantage of that, so good for us.
“But I don’t think at 3-1 it’s that easy.”
Saturday’s loss kept the Wings outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture and the sleepiness for much of the evening was especially head-scratching coming off an impressive victory in Buffalo and the opportunity to move up into the playoff picture given the results around the East earlier in the day.
“When you’re down 4-0, it’s tough to come back from that,” DeBrincat said. “We weren’t good by any means. Good push at the end but we have to start playing well earlier than that. Didn’t think we started the game very well.”
Philadelphia’s Owen Tippett scored three goals (one a power play), Noah Cates added a power-play goal, and Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar stopped 29 shots. With the victory, the Flyers (36-24-12) moved within two points of the Wings (39-26-8) and can tie Detroit with a victory Sunday against Dallas.
“We have to play with a lot more desperation and jump if we want to win hockey games,” Raymond said. “Saw that last game in Buffalo. It’s there, we know what is at stake and what we have to do. But it’s about coming out there and doing it.”
Tippett’s three goals gave him 27 for the season. He scored his first getting behind the Wings’ defense and breaking in alone on goaltender John Gibson at 4:07 of the first period, a goal that may have deflated the Wings for the next 50 minutes, or so.
“That first goal killed us because it was something that didn’t have to happen,” McLellan said. “It was a big part of our pre-scout and our presentation to the players prior to going out. There was nothing positive about it and we did it to ourselves.”
Tippett made it 2-0 at 12:22 of the second period, driving through the slot and snapping a shot that dribbled through Gibson’s pads and into the back of the net. The Flyers pushed the lead to 3-0 at 16:08, as Cates scored his 17th, on the power play, jamming a puck at the side of the net.
Tippett completed his hat trick at 7:19 of the third period, on the power play, skating through the Wings and snapping his 27th goal past Gibson (18 saves). Cam Talbot relieved Gibson to finish the evening and stopped all four shots he faced.
“We got Talbs some work with his situation (missed Thursday’s practice with an undisclosed injury) and we wanted to make sure that he could play,” McLellan said. “We played Gibby back-to-back and it wasn’t ideal, but he gave us what he could give us. Talbs went in and finished the night.”
The Wings’ loss was especially costly considering teams ahead of them in the standings, such as Pittsburgh, the New York Islanders, Columbus and Ottawa, all lost in regulation time.
But the Wings didn’t capitalize, and in the process lost their third game in the last four, with all three of those losses against teams around them currently in the standings (Boston, Ottawa, Philadelphia).
“Very frustrating,” DeBrincat said. “It’s our job to win on home ice and that’s when we should be at our best. We haven’t been our best and it’s very frustrating. We’re still not out of it, we have a lot of hockey to play, (but) we have to be better from the start to finish.”
Wings recall Mazur in time for Saturday’s game
Mazur played his second NHL game – he was injured in his NHL debut last season – and played 10:06 on 17 shifts, credited with two hits.
Mazur replaced veteran James van Riemsdyk, who was a healthy scratch on the back end of a back-to-back games.
“Carter, Dominik Shine, these guys worked hard and it’s hard to play in a game where the whole team is as smelly as we were,” McLellan said. “But Carter did a good job.”
Wings need to duplicate late-game flurry
Appleton started the comeback with a shot from the hashmarks that beat Vladar, and suddenly the Wings roared back finding holes in the Flyers’ defense.
But the intensity and passion were much different from the previous 50 minutes.
“That’s the way we have to play all the time,” DeBrincat said. “Play on our toes and keep pucks in, win battles. How many battles on the wall did we win in those final six minutes of the game? We scored a couple of goals off of it. We can play like that. We have to play desperate like we were there. If we play desperate for 60 minutes, we’re a real good team.
“It’s unacceptable (Saturday’s game) and we have to be better.”
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
@tkulfan
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Red Wings make it interesting late but come up short against Flyers
Reporting by Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
