Helene St. James | Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Red Wings played another close game, benefitting from outstanding goaltending by Jonathan Bernier.
Hosting Original Six rival Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday at Little Caesars Arena, the Wings trailed going into the third period because they came up short in the special teams battle.
A late flurry wasn’t enough, and the Wings lost, 2-0, on an empty net goal, dropping to 4-11-3.
The Wings had an excellent start to the third period, creating pressure on goalie Kevin Lankinen as they cycled the puck. They went on their third power play midway through the period, and Filip Hronek found Filip Zadina for two one-timers from the right circle, and Dylan Larkin tried a slap shot. They continued to press at even strength, with Bobby Ryan firing a wrist shot from the slot and Christian Djoos attempting to stuff the puck near the left goal post.
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Bernier went to the bench with 1:23 to play for the extra attacker, and were burned when Fabbri’s blind pass was picked off, leading to Alex DeBrincat’s goal.
Searching for a spark
Anthony Mantha started on a line with Fabbri and Ryan, while Larkin was with Mathias Brome and Zadina — those have been the top lines for a few games. But with the Blackhawks generating more scoring chances early, Mantha was moved onto Larkin’s line, dropping Brome to Fabbri’s line. The tweaking paid off with two scoring chances in the last minute or so of the first period. Mantha was along the right boards when he got the puck from Zadina and fired a puck that Lankinen denied. Larkin was at the net in case of a rebound. On the next shift, Ryan carried the puck around the net and sent it out front to Fabbri, who had an open net only to shoot the puck high.
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Sparking the power play
The Wings were 0-for-26 on man advantages in their previous nine games. They had excellent looks in Saturday’s 4-2 victory at Nashville, then looked inept Monday. They went on a power play 1:08 into the second period Wednesday when Jon Merrill drew a tripping penalty on Pius Suter. It was maybe their best power play of the season that they didn’t convert on. Sam Gagner had a chance around the net. Fabbri tried on a redirect. Zadina wound up three one-timers from the right circle, hitting a goal post.
Splitting the penalty kill
The Blackhawks demonstrated how converting on a power play is done, at 12:03 of the second period, scoring with 10 seconds to go on a penalty to Valtteri Filppula. Duncan Keith passed to Philipp Kurashev in the neutral zone. He strode up the middle, split Merrill and Troy Stecher deking to his forehand to slip the puck beneath Bernier’s pads. That was Chicago’s 18th power-play goal on 53 opportunities.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.