Detroit — Again, a return to Little Caesars Arena proved to be the cure the Red Wings needed to right all their ills.
Returning home with a three-game losing streak — including two lackluster losses in St. Louis and Colorado — the Wings looked like a different team Tuesday while defeating the New York Islanders, 2-1.
The Wings played a much better defensive game than was evident on the road, and looked like a confident team while back on home ice.
Dylan Larkin scored a power -play goal in the second period, Michael Rasmussen added one in the third period, and goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 33 shots including a glove save on Jean-Gabriel Pageau as time expired, as the Wings (14-12-3) continued their dominance at LCA.
The Wings are 10-3-2 at LCA, incorporating a true home-ice advantage they haven’t had since moving into their new home.
BOX SCORE: Red Wings 2, Islanders 1
Still, the Islanders did make it interesting near the end.
Anders Lee scored his eighth goal for the Islanders – who had pulled the goaltender – deflecting a point shot, at 17 minutes 27 seconds of the third period, cutting the Wings lead to 2-1.
Larkin was clearly disappointed after the loss Friday to the Avalanche, but felt a hard practice and return to LCA could be a welcome tonic.
It proved to be correct.
“You look at our most recent struggles, we got a couple of practice days, and we came out and won five in a row,” said Larkin Friday after the Colorado loss. “We need to get back to work at home, hopefully get some guys back and see what can happen.”
Larkin was frustrated with the Wings’ response on the two-game trip, after a disheartening loss at LCA to Nashville a week ago.
“Disappointing,” said Larkin of the two-game trip. “It was a back-to-back, four points on the line and we didn’t come up with any. We had a good stretch and we’re a little banged up right now, but we got to find a way to get something.”
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The Wings welcomed back forward Tyler Bertuzzi (COVID protocol) and defenseman Gustav Lindstrom (lower body) to the lineup.
Nedeljkovic stopped a personal two-game losing streak with a quality performance.
With the Wings clinging to a one-goal lead in the final seconds of the second period, Nedeljkovic made a huge 3-on-1 save on Brock Nelson, gathered himself, and saw Robin Salo blast a shot off the post, as the Wings maintained the lead.
Both Nedeljkovic and Thomas Greiss had provided the Wings with consistent goaltending up until last week’s losing streak, but Blashill felt good team defense in front of the goaltenders could also be a helpful factor.
“We’ve had stretches of real good goaltending and goalies have won us games at times,” Blashill said. “But they need to be, without a doubt, part of the factor in winning. It’s just the reality of this league.
“(But) part of great goaltending is great defense and we have to work on it together and make sure we’re not giving up the number of chances (the Wings had been allowing).”
Rasmussen gave the Wings a 2-0 lead at 12:55 of the third period, his third goal.
Adam Erne intercepted an Islander pass attempt through the crease, turned, and fed Rasmussen with an outlet pass. Rasmussen found himself on a 2-on-1 rush, kept the puck, and snapped a shot past goalie Ilya Sorokin.
Larkin’s power-play goal, his 11th, gave the Wings a 1-0 lead in the second period.
Moritz Seider faked a move to create a lane and fed Larkin near the top of the slot. Larkin snapped a shot that Sorokin got with his blocker, but the puck deflected through and into the net at 10:32.
Seider and Lucas Raymond, who made a nice play chipping the puck along the boards hounded by two Islanders, drew assists on Larkin’s goal.
Seider’s assist gave him 17 for the season, leading all NHL rookies, as he also reached the 20-point plateau, reaching 20 points in the second-fewest games by a rookie defenseman on the Wings, behind only Nicklas Lidstrom (22 games).
Raymond’s assist was his 15th, and gave him an NHL-leading 25 points (Raymond also has an NHL-rookie leading 10 goals).
And for good measure, Nedeljkovic competes the Wings’ rookie star trio with nine victories (9-6-3), best among rookie goaltenders.
This was the second consecutive victory for the Wings over the Islanders (7-12-5), who were missing star forward Mat Barzal to COVID protocol as the virus continues to decimate the Islanders roster.
But the Wings responded with a needed victory after struggles of their own.
“You are going to have ebb and flow during the season,” said coach Jeff Blashill after Tuesday’s morning skate.
“Against a team that is like us, both teams are desperate for points and a team that is coming back similar to us, coming back to full strength, we have to play great hockey. We can’t have our B-game. We got to have our A-game We got to play great as a five-man unit.”
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan