DETROIT — The Red Wings desperately needed a win Wednesday to stay alive in the playoff race and had objectively an ideal matchup — at home against the Blackhawks — to get one.
Trailing by two goals at the first intermission, they raced out of the locker room mere seconds before the second-period puck drop and took over from that point on, rallying to beat the Hawks 4-3.
“We just weren’t sharp right from the start,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. [It was] a really sloppy game by us.
“In the second period, it just seemed to get worse. It looked like we couldn’t catch a pass or make the right read or play. As well as everybody played last game, everybody was off other than our goaltender tonight.”
Alex Stalock was, as Richardson mentioned, yet another bright spot.
His season has been a roller coaster of concussion and eyesight concerns, but he has looked like the Hawks’ most valuable player every time he has been healthy. He made 37 saves to keep the Hawks afloat for a while and now touts a .920 save percentage this year.
But Stalock’s efforts weren’t enough. The Wings finally broke through when Lucas Raymond tied the game with 7:24 left and ex-Hawk-turned-Wings forward Dominik Kubalik won it with 4:07 left, dealing the Hawks their fifth loss in six games.
At five-on-five, the Hawks generated two high-danger scoring chances and conceded 14 – their worst showing of the season in that regard.
“They probably looked at each other in the eyes after the first and wanted to have a better second,” Stalock said. “It’s one of those periods where it snowballs. They stayed fresh and we iced the puck and stayed out there, and you get tired.”
This and that
- The Hawks placed minor-league forward Pavel Gogolev, whom they just acquired in the Jake McCabe trade, on unconditional waivers Wednesday for the purpose of contract termination. Gogolev had played two games for Rockford. It appears he plans to return to the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, where he racked up 48 points in 33 games this season before the trade.
- Richardson estimated that defenseman Andreas Englund, another recently acquired player, will miss one-to-two weeks with a hamstring injury he suffered Monday.
- The Hawks acquired forward Austin Wagner from the Kings last week (for future considerations) knowing he had an injury that had become infected, Richardson said. The timeline for his Hawks debut is unclear.