RECAP: ‘A great start’ helps Red Wings cool off Atlantic Division-leading Sabres, 5-2

BUFFALO -- Going into the barn of the NHL’s best club since regular-season action resumed after the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and later leaving with two crucial points, the Detroit Red Wings used a three-goal first period to defeat the Atlantic Division-leading Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, at KeyBank Center on Friday night.

“It was a great start,” said Patrick Kane, who finished with an empty-net goal and an assist for his 11th multi-point game of the season. “I think we were really focused on the start tonight, and that obviously put us in a great position. Second period wasn't great, obviously, but kind of held down the fort, only gave up one. Gibby made some huge saves. He was unbelievable for us tonight, and a lot of bending but not breaking in the right moments in the game…So, big team win. Coming into Buffalo against a good team, we should feel good about that one but got to get right back to it tomorrow.”

A 28-save performance from goalie John Gibson helped the Red Wings (39-25-8; 86 points) gain some ground in the Eastern Conference’s Wild-Card race, while netminder Alex Lyon made 15 saves for the Sabres (44-21-8; 96 points).

“Total team effort, but anchored by the goaltender,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s something [Gibson] has done all year for us, really, so everybody had to step up a bit and he just provided us what he continually does.”

Alex DeBrincat and the Red Wings made good on an early power play – just four seconds into it, in fact – as the 28-year-old forward spotted the rebound of Moritz Seider’s point shot and wristed it behind Lyon to make it 1-0 at 4:02 of the first period. Captain Dylan Larkin earned the secondary assist on what was DeBrincat’s 36th goal of the season and 13th on the man advantage – both of which lead the club.

Extending his point streak to eight consecutive games, DeBrincat also became the fifth active United States-born skater to record at least 100 power-play goals.

Detroit potted its second man-advantage marker of the opening frame just 5:09 later, this one off the stick of Lucas Raymond, to jump ahead 2-0. Seider kept the puck in the offensive zone with an athletic one-handed play at the blue line to deny a clearing attempt by Ryan McLeod and found Raymond, who skated to the left face-off circle before firing the puck into the back of the net for his 23rd tally of the campaign.

Then with 3:54 remaining before the first intermission, Marco Kasper received a pass from Emmitt Finnie in front of the crease and made a nice spin move to get himself some space in the right face-off circle before wristing his eighth goal of the season into the back of the net to open things up to 3-0. A secondary helper was credited to James van Riemsdyk.

“Everybody was asking me questions this morning about the want or need to score in the first period, so it was real big,” McLellan said. “We caught them maybe a little bit flat. You could see when they took it up in the second, then it was a different game, but the lead was something that we needed. They have a tendency, once they get rolling and scoring, to not give up leads.”

In the second period, the Red Wings were outshot 12-3 and watched the Sabres cut it to 3-1 at 5:35 when Tage Thompson’s one-timer from the edge of the left face-off circle beat Gibson.

"You can tell they feed off that," Kane, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., said of the energy inside KeyBank Center on Friday night and this season. "You can see in the second period, right? The building gets wild. They get chanting. They start roaming around the offensive zone, get a lot of zone time. You can see the crowd get into it, so I kind of compare it to the Bills a little bit, too. Like, the Bills are good -- it's good for the city. Same thing with the Sabres."

Although Detroit came up empty on a four-minute power play well into the third period, Jacob Bernard-Docker -- in his 200th career NHL game -- scored his first goal of the season when he snapped home a shot from the top of the left face-off circle to make it 4-1 at 15:46. The assists went to Kane and DeBrincat.

"It felt pretty good," said Bernard-Docker, who also re-signed a two-year contract extension with the Red Wings on Wednesday evening. "Probably looked like I never scored in my life before, but just some emotion coming out of me. It's always fun to contribute offensively. It's not usually my role, so it's fun when they go in."

Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin made it 4-2 at 16:25, but Kane scored into an empty net with 1:43 to play for the 5-2 final.

“Penalty kill was huge,” said Kane, who has lit the lamp 13 times this season. “Power play would’ve been nice to be a little better at the end, but at the same time you’re playing to score, right? You don’t want to turn it over at the blue line, make any plays that put you in a bad position or give them an odd-man rush. I don’t want to say you’re just playing to waste time there, but we didn’t want to give anything up. So, power play was great in the beginning of the game, too, so did the job tonight."

NEXT UP: Detroit will be right back at it on Saturday night, hosting the Philadelphia Flyers at Little Caesars Arena to conclude its penultimate back-to-back set of the season.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on the impact of a first-period lead like his club took on Friday night

“You score goals, so you feel better. Can anybody remember the last time we put five goals up? Four, I guess, was without the empty netter. It’s been a while, so that alone against a team like this is a real positive thing. But, the first period was good because a couple came on the power play.”

McLellan on the status of netminder Cam Talbot, who is dealing with an undisclosed injury

“You saw him skate this morning, so he’s that close. We’ll see how he is tomorrow. We’re going to get him on the ice in the morning and see where he’s at.”

Kane on Detroit’s identity

“I think we’ve had some really good moments, even when Larks was out. Obviously, maybe we weren’t getting some production, but we were playing really well. I think we know the way we need to play to be successful and that just might be playing stingy, taking advantage of our opportunities and scoring on the power play.”