DeBrincat scores twice, Red Wings defeat Lightning

DETROIT -- Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist in his second game for the Detroit Red Wings, a 6-4 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

DeBrincat, who was acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on July 9 and signed a four-year, $31.5 million contract ($7.875 million average annual value), was plus-4 in 18:29 of ice time. He is a native of Farmington Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

“You always want to get off to a good start,” DeBrincat said after his first home game with his hometown team. “Now I want to stay as consistent as possible. That’s what the great goal-scorers do.”

J.T. Compher and Moritz Seider each had a goal and an assist, and Ville Husso made 21 saves for the Red Wings (1-1-0) in their home opener.

“Still not a perfect game; our offense was going, but we made some mistakes,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “I think the biggest factor tonight [was] we stayed out of the box. That was huge for us. I think we were the better team 5-on-5.”

Steven Stamkos had two goals and an assist, and Victor Hedman had a goal and two assists for the Lightning (1-1-0). Jonas Johansson made 36 saves.

“[Johannson] kept us in the game, which was great, but our puck management gave them too many easy chances,” Hedman said. “If you keep taking shifts off and you don’t take care of the puck, it is going to start ending up in the back of your net.”

Daniel Sprong gave Detroit a 1-0 lead at 5:11 of the first period with his second goal in two games, tapping in DeBrincat’s shot after it got behind Johansson.

Stamkos appeared to tie the game at 7:34, but a replay review ruled he knocked the puck in with his glove.

But after Johansson stopped Conor Sheary on a 2-on-0 breakaway, Stamkos scored off a feed from Hedman at 9:46 to tie it 1-1.

Brandon Hagel gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead at 12:52 on a breakaway after Hedman blocked a shot and sent him up ice.

DeBrincat tied it 2-2 at 14:35 on a deflection for his second goal of the season.

Lucas Raymond gave Detroit a 3-2 lead at 2:01 of the second period on a one-timer, but Stamkos scored again at 10:53 to tie it 3-3.

Compher put Detroit back in front 4-3 at 15:23 on a redirection of Seider’s shot.

DeBrincat scored again at 4:44 of the third period when Dylan Larkin blew past Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and set up DeBrincat to make it 5-3.

“I loved our offense tonight, but we had six or seven plays that led to easy chances for them,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “We could have made things a lot easier on ourselves.”

Hedman’s power-play goal at 9:39 cut it to 5-4, but Seider scored an empty-net goal at 19:59 for the 6-4 final.

The Lightning play again Sunday at the Ottawa Senators.

“We never do [stuff] like we did tonight, and I’m talking about players who have played a lot of games for this team,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “When you give another team as much as we gave them tonight, it is almost impossible to win a hockey game.”

NOTES: DeBrincat is the third player in Red Wings history to score three goals in his first two games with them, joining Harry Watson (1942-43) and Bobby Ryan (2020-21). … It was Stamkos’ 90th multigoal game. … Sergachev was minus-4 in 21:30.