In Detroit, Alex DeBrincat hit for a hat trick on Sunday afternoon in a 6-2 win for the Red Wings over the visiting Calgary Flames.
“Right now, everything is going into the net, but that’s not going to last forever,” DeBrincat said. “I’m playing with Dylan [Larkin] and [Lucas Raymond], who are obviously great players, and we’re playing great in our d-zone, which leads to odd-man rushes.”
DeBrincat leads the NHL in scoring with 12 points on eight goals.
DeBrincat opened the scoring in the game with two minutes gone in the first to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
“This is only six games, but it is more noticeable when you have a streak like this at the front end of the season,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Last season, we had a 7-1 stretch just before the (NHL trade) deadline that was a lot like this.”
Joe Veleno scored midway through the first to extend the advantage to 2+0 for the Red Wings.
Dylan Larkin hit for a goal two minutes into the middle frame to balloon the lead for Detroit to 3-0.
James Reimer made 29 saves in the win.
Calgary got on the board in the second period on a marker from Andrew Mangiapane at 12:12 of the second to make it 3-1 to Detroit.
DeBrincat ht for his second at 13:33 to push the lead back to three at 4-1.
“We’re averaging about five goals a game and we came into tonight with our power play at 50 percent,” Lalonde said. “Of course, that’s not sustainable for anyone, but you ride these streaks as long as you can.”
Yegor Sharangovich scored for the Flames at 18:34 to trim the deficit to 4-2.
“They were a hungrier team,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “If you turn over as many pucks as we did, you’re asking for a steady dose of odd-man rushes coming back against you. That’s not a recipe for winning at any level.”
Detroit took the momentum away from the Flames at 3:07 of the third when Jake Walman scored for a 5-2 lead for the Red Wings.
“I think tonight was our most complete 5-on-5 game as a team,” Larkin said. “We scored at big times, and we kept getting the puck to (DeBrincat).”
DeBrincat completed his hat trick 27 seconds later for the 6-2 final.
Dan Vladar made 24 saves in the Flames loss.
“We were slow everywhere,” Flames defenseman Chris Tanev said. “We’re not going to win if we play like we did today — we’re giving up a lot of 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s — and teams are capitalizing on them.”
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