The Detroit Red Wings will head into the new year with at least a share of first place in the Atlantic Division. They can maintain sole possession with a win over Winnipeg in Detroit’s annual New Year’s Eve home game on Wednesday.
That’s a nice, and unusual, place to be for a franchise that hasn’t qualified for the postseason since 2016. Detroit has risen to the top of the tightly packed division by going 10-3-1 in December.
Their last three victories have come in overtime, including a 3-2 thriller over division foe Toronto on Sunday. Defenseman Simon Edvinsson scored the game-winner.
“We know this game was going to be huge against a rival,” Edvinsson said. “To come back two times, three times, it’s huge for the group. We’ve got to take these wins and build off of them and keep going to the next ones.”
Detroit was coming off a 5-2 loss to Carolina the previous night.
“I feel like this entire year we’ve bounced back after tough performances,” said Mason Appleton, who scored the tying goal early in the third period. “It just goes to show the belief we have in this room.”
The Red Wings clinched the four-game season series vs. Toronto with one game remaining.
“We believe that you have to win your season series, especially against teams in your own division, conference as well, but certainly division, and we actually talked about that,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We’re guaranteed to win that series, so real important.”
Detroit forward Patrick Kane returned to action on Sunday after missing the previous six games due to an upper-body injury. He needs two goals to reach the coveted 500 mark for his career.
This will be the first meeting between Detroit and Winnipeg, which will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak.
The first five losses during Winnipeg’s current slide were decided by one goal, including three in overtime. The Jets’ latest loss was just as frustrating. While falling to Edmonton 3-1 on Monday, they had 42 shots on goal but Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard stopped all but one of them.
“I can’t criticize the effort, I can’t criticize the battle,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “The opportunities, the game plan that we threw at them against their elite players, all of those things I asked them to do, they did it. At the end of the day, we’re not getting points and that’s the most important thing.”
Adam Lowry had the lone Winnipeg goal during the third period, which cut Edmonton’s lead to 2-1. The Oilers secured the win with an empty-netter.
“I thought we played really well,” Lowry said. “Obviously, there are no moral victories, but I think if we play that style of hockey, if we play that consistent effort for 60 minutes, we are going to get more positive results than we got here. That’s what you can take from this game.
“Our two games coming out of Christmas, obviously we didn’t get the result (including a 4-3 overtime loss to Minnesota on Saturday), but I think as a whole, the process and the way it looks is a lot closer to what we envisioned our team to look like.”
–Field Level Media
