The Red Wings sputtered in the final period against Toronto Saturday evening. Would they have a better finish in a full 60 minute effort?
Dylan Larkin opened the scoring and Jordan Oesterle ended it in overtime as Detroit knocked off Anaheim 2-1 Monday night.
The first period saw a lot of back and forth with teams trading chances. Gustav Lindstrom put a big hit on Sam Steele, and also had a heck of a period which included a grade A scoring chance turned away in the dying seconds of the period. That pass was set up by Larkin, who moments earlier, notched his league leading 23rd goal on a backhand shot he roofed to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
The second period featured a power play that nearly resulted in near goals–one from Tyler Bertuzzi who shot wide. Later on, Joe Veleno had an unbelievable chance in the front of the net, where Sam Gagner hit him with a pass but the puck hopped off and extinguished a chance with a wide open net.
Anaheim would even the score later on an Oesterle pass that was intercepted in the neutral zone and taken the other way for a quick goal.
In the third period, the Red Wings held Anaheim without a shot for over seven minutes, the first opportunity coming during a four on four. Both teams played the third period carefully, limiting chances and trying not to overreach or making a mistake that could lead to the game winning goal.
Wouldn’t you know it, a fluky bounce would get the Red Wings a goal..until it didn’t. Moritz Seider made a pass through his legs to Larkin who rushed it up the ice and took a shot. The rebound popped off Filip Hronek‘s skate as he glided by, and fluttered into the net, giving the Red Wings an apparent 2-1 lead. But the referees ruled that Hronek kicked the puck in the net, keeping the game knotted at one. For the record, Mickey and Ken disagreed.
The game headed to overtime and wouldn’t you know it, the unlikeliest of heroes would emerge. A quick whistle negated a chance for Anaheim to get a two-on-one break, and the Red Wings capitalized. Larkin won the faceoff, and on a second effort, dished it back to Oesterle, who snapped a shot past John Gibson, giving the Red Wings a hard earned 2-1 victory.