Yahoo Sports DeBrusk Hat Trick Sinks Red Wings in 5-4 OT Loss to Canucks
On Sunday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings dropped a back-and-forth affair to the visiting Vancouver Canucks, falling 5-4 in overtime. Vancouver won the day on the strength of a Jake DeBrusk hat trick, the third installment providing sealing the visitors' OT victory. Meanwhile, the afternoon brought more troubling news than just the dropped point for Detroit as starting goaltender Cam Talbot was unable to finish the game due to injury.
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Jonatan Berggren scored his fourth goal of the season (with assists from Erik Gustafssson and Marco Kasper) for the lone goal of the first period. However, the visitors scored thrice in the second. The first two both came from DeBrusk, and each came on the power play. Former Red Wing Pius Suter netted the third. However, an Alex DeBrincat marker sandwiched between DeBrusk's second and Suter's strike left the score at 3-2 through two periods.
Talbot conceded the first two goals against of the game before being injured just before the midpoint of the third, requiring backup Ville Husso (newly recalled from Grand Rapids with Alex Lyon injured) to finish the game in g
Detroit came out firing in the third, scoring twice in the first five minutes to first tie the game then take their first lead since the first period. Michael Rasmussen provided the equalizer (2:24 into the third), then a beautiful finish from Vladimir Tarasenko (assisted by Berggren and Kasper, two minutes and 26 seconds after Rasmussen's) put the Red Wings in front. Unfortunately for the home crowd, Erik Brannstrom tied the game with just under four to play in regulation before DeBrusk's OT winner.
With the OT defeat, Detroit falls to 10-11-3, firmly in the Eastern Conference's muddy middle. The Red Wings are four points out of the second wild card spot in the East (presently held by the Philadelphia Flyers) and four points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens who are dead last in the conference. A point against a credible Western Conference contender isn't a terrible result, but a squandered third period lead is a tough pill to swallow. One thing that remains painfully obvious is that Detroit's penalty kill (which conceded twice Sunday afternoon) is a glaring, glaring weakness that continues to plague a team that struggles enough as it is to stay above water at five-on-five.
The Red Wings will be back in action Tuesday night in Boston.
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