In the Motor City, the good times rolled on in a Sunday contest between the Red Wings and surprisingly hapless Anaheim Ducks.
Dominik Kubalik had a goal and three points for Detroit.
“I don’t know why, but I’m feeling good,” said Kubalik3. “The power play is clicking, and that’s huge. We’re not doing anything spectacular, we’re just giving the puck to someone who is in a better position.”
Ville Husso made 31 saves in the Red Wings victory.
“There are things we could be doing better. There are always little things, I guess,” Husso said. “But right now, the penalty kill is rolling and guys are blocking shots. That’s super good for me.”
Trevor Zegras was the lone striker for the Ducks.
“There are a lot of similarities to these games,” Ducks forward Adam Henrique said. “We’re taking four or five penalties a night and giving up 40 shots. There have been some better stretches, but that’s not enough in this league.”
Dylan Larkin opened the scoring to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead; his goal came off the power play.
“In the profession, we call this an assistant coach’s win because of the special teams,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “They were dynamite, and that’s all the work of Alex Tanguay and Jay Varady.”
After Zegras tied the game, David Perron put Detroit up to stay at 2-1, with a power play marker.
“We need depth, and those goals are the perfect example,” Lalonde said. “We’ve lost arguably two top-six forwards in (Robby) Fabbri and (Tyler) Bertuzzi. Throw (Jakub) Vrana in there and we’ve lost three of our top six. That’s going to hurt anyone and it is hurting us, but because of depth, we have a competitive lineup.”
Joe Veleno increased the Red Wings advantage to 3-1.
Kubalik, added Detroit’s third power play strike for a 4-1 lead in the third period.
“On the first shift of the game, we take a penalty that has nothing to do with saving a goal,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “The only time you want to take a penalty in this league is if you’re going to break up a goal, but we put ourselves off kilter right away and the killers weren’t good enough.”
Elmer Soderblom finished off the scoring in the 15th minute of the final frame for the 5-1 final..
John Gibson made 36 saves in the Ducks loss.
“We went offside on a 5-on-3,” Ducks forward Ryan Strome said. “That should never happen. We never even got set up, to be honest. We flung the puck at the net a couple times, but we have to execute. This is embarrassing.”
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