Ends it with 42 seconds left; Chytil scores in debut, Hughes is late scratch for Vancouver
By Kevin Woodley
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
VANCOUVER — Alex DeBrincat scored his second goal with 42 seconds left in overtime and the Detroit Red Wings won their sixth straight game, 3-2 against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Sunday.
DeBrincat converted a cross-ice rush pass from Lucas Raymond, who will represent Sweden in the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20, with a one-timer past a sprawled Kevin Lankinen from the bottom of the left circle.
“Their guy got lost in our zone when we picked it up and saw it was going to be a long 3-on-2 and ‘Ray’ was the late guy, so I gave it to him, and he made a great play back to me,” DeBrincat said.
Alex Lyon made 25 saves for the Red Wings (27-21-5), who were coming off a 3-1 win at the Calgary Flames on Saturday and have won the first three of a four-game trip that concludes at the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
“It’s a tough back-to-back,” said Detroit forward Patrick Kane, who returned after missing five games with an upper-body injury. “Less than 24 hours in between and we knew it was going to be a little bit of a grind. So yeah, found a way to get it done. Obviously, you need wins like that when you not at your best.”
DET@VAN: DeBrincat drills it past Lankinen to put the Red Wings on top 3-2 in overtime
Detroit is 14-4-1 since Todd McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde as coach on Dec. 26.
“Everybody around the team has a sense of belief now,” McLellan said. “When you come in and try to create an environment and you try and introduce new concepts for the players, they’re either going to accept them and make it work, or they’re going to poke holes in it and say it doesn’t work. All of our players have chosen to try and make it work, and the longer it goes, the more they believe but we have some things to clean up and we have some things to advance in too.”
Filip Chytil scored in his first game with the Canucks (23-18-11), who are 0-1-1 since trading J.T. Miller to the Rangers on Friday, the first of two deals that brought back four players to Vancouver. Lankinen made 15 saves.
Three of the four new players — defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forwards Chytil and Drew O’Connor — made their Canucks debuts against Detroit, but Vancouver was missing No.1 defenseman Quinn Hughes, who was a late scratch with an undisclosed injury. Hughes, who will represent the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off, did take part in the pregame warmup.
“He wanted to gut it out,” coach Rick Tocchet said, “But not the smartest play to play him. He wants to play every game. So, 48 hours, we’ll see how he is.”
Chytil scored an unassisted goal at 10:46 of the third period to tie the game 2-2, skating onto a loose puck off the rush and cutting across the slot to the bottom of the left face-off circle before shooting under Lyon’s blocker.
“I just saw there was not an open lane to shoot right away, so I was holding that as long as I could and I’m happy it went in,” Chytil said. “That meant a lot to me. In that moment, it was so many emotions in my head, and I always said, I want to build on that and keep working hard every day and be even better.”
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DET@VAN: Chytil whips it past Lyon to tie the game at 2 in the 3rd
Pius Suter put Vancouver ahead 1-0 at 4:19 of the first period by deflecting a high point shot from defenseman Elias Pettersson under the pads of a screened Lyon. It was the first NHL point for Pettersson, who was playing his third game after Hughes and defenseman Carson Soucy were late scratches.
“That was fun. It felt good,” Pettersson said.
DeBrincat tied it 1-1 on a 3-on-2 rush at 6:05, cutting into the middle near the top of the circles and using shooting against the grain and past the blocker of Lankinen with Andrew Copp driving to the net to create a screen.
DeBrincat has 50 goals in 135 games with the Red Wings, becoming the fastest player reach that mark with the team since Brett Hull did it in 130 games.
“He’s a competitor that is a goal-scorer, but I think the first one is more important,” McLellan said. “He has the skills, the talent, but he wants those situations, he wants to puck on his tape. When you call his name, things brighten up pretty quick, he’s hungry to get back out there. A competitor that can score is a real good thing.”
Ben Chiarot put the Red Wings ahead 2-1 at 5:54 of the second period with a high glove shot from the left point through traffic.
“We’re finding ways to win even not when we’re at our best,” Kane said. “We know we have a lot better but there’s a lot of confidence in the room right now.”
Lyon, who made 45 saves in a 3-2 shootout win at the Edmonton Oilers to open the trip on Thursday, gloved a Brock Boeser breakaway 1:33 into the game, stopped Nils Hoglander on a quick wraparound at 10:40 of the second period and made a tough rebound stop on Conor Garland just over one minute later.
“Win three games in four nights on the road, that doesn’t get done without real good goaltending,” McLellan said. “He made some outstanding saves.”
NOTES: Kane had three shots on goal in 18:19 of ice time. … Marcus Pettersson was minus-1 in 25:57 … O’Connor played 14:04. … The Red Wings are 19-1-1 when leading after two periods. … Canucks forward Kiefer Sherwood returned after missing four games with a lower-body injury and had one assist and eight hits in 15:28, setting a team record with an NHL-high 281 hits this season, eight more than Luke Schenn (273) had in 2021-22.
