They have allowed only six goals in the past four games, going 3-1-0, capped by Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Lucas Raymond’s power-play goal at 3:35 of overtime.
Strong goaltending helps. Cam Talbot made 24 saves to help his team get back to .500 in points percentage (10-10-2). He was 2:48 away from a shutout before Connor Zary’s late power-play goal tied it.
The Red Wings battled back and felt they got what they deserved for their solid defensive effort.
“Really wanted the shutout tonight, just the way we played in our little stretch of hockey lately,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “We took too many penalties. Four was just too much. It was just a matter of time. We did a good job on that kill, but what a complete game, start to finish. Our push early in the third, we were on top of our game and that was a good game.”
The Red Wings capitalized on a penalty for too many men on the ice, after Calgary scored with nine seconds remaining on Dylan Larkin’s penalty for a faceoff violation (playing the puck with his glove).
“Obviously felt good,” Raymond said. “Leading for almost 50 minutes, it’s tough to give up a late one, but have a good bounce back.
“I think we’re getting back to our game we’re supposed to play. Obviously, goaltending has been a huge part of that. I just think we found our game, playing with more pace, play on the same page and getting results off of that.”
Scoring has been a challenge for the Red Wings, who have produced only nine goals during this four-game stretch. They realize the need to grind out low-scoring games.
“I think that we’ve shown that we can play these games,” Talbot said. “We knew that coming into this game, Calgary, they’re an aggressive team. They forecheck hard. They tend to try to just outwork their opponents and grind them down. And we bent, but we didn’t break for the most part all night. I thought if anything, we kind of took it to them for most of the game.
“And then we give up that late one and you can do one of two things. You can either fold and give the game back to them, or you can come out in overtime and get the game-winner. So, we did a good job mentally of not letting that one get to us and finishing the win.”
Talbot is 6-4-2 and his .921 save percentage is tied for sixth in the league among goalies with 10 or more games.
“He’s been huge for us,” Lalonde said. “He’s brought a lot to our room, too. We’ve lost some important pieces to our leadership group which a lot of teams experience just to turn over. If we play a complete game in front of him, we don’t give up easy offense, we don’t give up rushes, we don’t give up east-west stuff … it’s been pretty consistent what he’s given us.”
“Our D-zone has been unbelievable as of late,” Talbot said. “The guys have been doing a good job clogging up the middle, making the other team give up the puck coming into our zone. And once we get to clean up the penalty kill a little bit here, I think you’ll see that number come down even more. But five-on-five, our team has been pretty dialed in the defensive zone and it’s something we’ve been focusing on as of late and it’s translated into games.”
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