Yahoo Sports Stars Shine Through as Red Wings Come from Behind to Beat Islanders
On Monday night on Long Island, Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond lifted the Detroit Red Wings to a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders. With the win, Detroit completed a three-game sweep of the Isles for the first time since the '88-89 season. It wasn't a perfect performance, with some defensive lapses creating a deficit to overturn, but in third period crunch time, Alex Lyon's commanding presence in the crease and star power up front won the day.
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In the first period, the Red Wings set off to a vigorous start, via the forecheck and cycle, creating open backdoor on consecutive shifts. First Dylan Larkin set up Lucas Raymond, then J.T. Compher laid one out for Tyler Motte, but neither chance created even a shot on net, much less the opening goal Detroit sought on enemy ice. Instead, 4:35 into the opening period, Anders Lee gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead. The Red Wings were perhaps unfortunate not to have an early goal of their own, but the goal against came from familiar disorganization in the defensive zone.
It would take 12 minutes and 21 seconds for Detroit to record a shot on Semyon Varlamov. Larkin did the honors, shifting through the gears as as he entered the offensive zone to create the look and forcing a toe save from Varlamov. The captain's individual effort seemed to galvanize the team, and the Red Wings began to apply pressure.
On Detroit's second shot, just over a minute on from Larkin's, Moritz Seider tied the game, capping off a well worked sequence from Christian Fischer and Andrew Copp down low in the offensive zone. It was a bumpy road to get there, but the Red Wings would end the first with the score tied at one.
The second period was balanced, but again, the Isles capitalized on loose coverage around the Detroit net, Kyle Palmieri burying the rebound from a deflected point shot. When the two teams met at Little Caesars Arena last week, Derek Lalonde scored the sort of greasy goal he wanted from his team. "Nothing pretty, the goal we were trying to get and look for," Lalonde had said of the Isles' lone goal that evening, and on Monday night, they did it again.
The Red Wings had two chances to tie the game on the power play in the second half of the second but couldn't convert on either. With those misses, Detroit had failed to score on 10 successive tries with the man advantage.
After an undistinguished first 40 minutes, the Red Wings' stars came through to overturn the 2-1 deficit and deliver a sorely needed victory. First, the captain scored the sort of gritty, "hard area" goals Lalonde craved. Not long after the midpoint of the third, Albert Johansson fed in a shot for Larkin to deflect. Varlamov was up to the save, but Justin Holl retrieved the loose puck and returned it for Larkin in the slot. Larkin dove across the slot to tuck this chance around Varlamov. Two and a half minutes later, the Red Wings found another of those greasy goals, as Raymond deflected home an Edvinsson point shot to give Detroit its first lead of the game at 3-2.
With just three seconds left in the game, the Red Wings clinched the victory via an act of selflessness. Simon Edvinsson flipped a clearance from his own end, which Michael Rasmussen ushered into the net without laying his blade to the puck. Whether he intended to shot or not, Edvinsson scored the goal to clinch a 4-2 win.
Lyon's best hockey of the night came between Raymond's equalizer and Edvinsson's icer. New York managed to create a number of desperate scrambles at six-on-five late, but Lyon stood up to each storm, finishing the night with 28 saves on 30 shots and helping the Red Wings steal another game in which they'd been out-shot.
On the strength of Lyon's third outstanding performance against the Isles of the year and two Detroit stars getting to the gritty areas whose virtues Lalonde had extolled, the Red Wings found a winning formula to improve to 8-10-2. The next challenge will be to prove its replicability on Wednesday night, when the Devils visit LCA.
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