Ducks hold off Red Wings to cap trip with back-to-back wins
By DANA GAURUDER The Associated Press
DETROIT — Adam Henrique scored his fourth goal in two games and the Ducks held off the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, on Monday night.
Henrique was coming off his first career hat trick Sunday against New Jersey.
Radko Gudas, Pavel Mintyukov and Troy Terry also scored for the Ducks, who have won two straight after a five-game losing streak. Lukas Dostal made 30 saves.
“I think we all did a heck of job,” Dostal said. “We simplified our game and the guys were blocking shots. We played as a unit and it worked for us.”
Alex DeBrincat surpassed 400 career points with two power-play goals in the third period for Detroit. Jeff Petry scored his first goal this season and Patrick Kane added two assists. The slumping Red Wings have lost six of seven.
Detroit captain Dylan Larkin had an assist in his return to the lineup, nine days after getting knocked unconscious when he was hit from behind by Ottawa’s Mathieu Joseph. Larkin missed four games.
Red Wings starting goaltender Ville Husso was helped off the ice with 2:37 remaining in the first period due to a lower-body injury. He was replaced by James Reimer, who made 12 saves.
Detroit forward Klim Kostin also exited early with an upper-body injury.
The Ducks grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first period.
Gudas scored at 2:23, lifting a shot over Husso’s glove. Mintyukov made it 2-0 at 8:19 with a wrist shot that deflected off a defender.
Shortly after Husso departed, Henrique redirected Cam Fowler’s shot from the point for a power-play goal.
“We got the advantage in the first period, and that’s not a position we’ve been in many times this year,” Terry said. “The story of our season has been to get one or two behind and then battle back. Tonight we got the lead early, and we got into penalty trouble late, but I thought we did a good job of managing the second night of a back-to-back.”
Terry scored at 1:46 of the second period, banging in a rebound of Urho Vaakanainen’s shot. Petry’s slap shot less than a minute later put Detroit on the board.
“We’re fragile right now,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Two of their first three chances went in and we’re chasing it.”
DeBrincat fired a one-timer from the left side at 7:17 of the third to cut the Ducks’ lead to two.
Mintyukov was assessed a double minor for high-sticking with 4:29 remaining. DeBrincat scored on another slap shot with 2:28 left.
“I loved the first 40 minutes and then we got into penalty problems in the third,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “That added some anxiety, but Dostal played really well.”
DeBrincat has 25 points in 15 career games against the Ducks.
“Obviously, we weren’t really ready to play,” DeBrincat said. “You’re not going to win many games when you go down 4-0 We tried to battle back but it’s too late. We’ve got to be ready to play. Those are two points we gave up that we shouldn’t.”
UP NEXT
The Ducks host the Calgary Flames on Thursday at 7 p.m.
More to come on this story.