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,” Detroit coach Todd 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.
Detroit is 14-4-1 since McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde as coach 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.”
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.