RECAP: Powered by 'good individual performances throughout the lineup,' Red Wings take down Capitals, 5-2

WASHINGTON -- There was no shortage of high-fives exchanged and smiles shared by their moms in the suite at Capital One Arena on Saturday afternoon, as the Detroit Red Wings grabbed an early lead and didn’t look back in a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.

“I thought we got good individual performances throughout the lineup,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “Nobody was a superstar, but everybody contributed. Able to roll four lines for most of it. Gibby, when he was tested, there were some deflections and tips that he had to fight through to find. I thought our D did a good job of clearing out the garbage and moving on.”

Goalie John Gibson, who made 24 saves for Detroit (20-13-3; 43 points), improved to 7-0-0 in his past seven starts to tie his NHL career high for longest winning streak. Meanwhile, netminder Logan Thompson finished with 36 saves for Washington (19-12-4; 42 points).

“It was really nice that we could get the win for [the moms]," Elmer Soderblom said. "Hopefully, we can do the same thing tomorrow.”

The Red Wings were all over the Capitals in the first period, finishing with a 17-6 edge in shots on goal and went up 1-0 just 65 seconds in when Leonard snapped home a rebound in the slot for his first NHL goal since March 20, 2024. The play started with Andrew Copp skating to center ice and passing the puck ahead to Simon Edvinsson, who then crossed Washington’s blue line before firing a shot from above the left face-off circle that bounced off Thompson and into the slot.

“From the first day that I got here, everyone has been awesome to me,” said Leonard, who was recalled from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins on Monday. “Whether it’s just saying hi, talking about hockey or different situations or systems like that, it’s been a lot of fun. A lot of credit to those guys. It’s been easy.”

Carrying that momentum over into the second period, the Red Wings found twine three times before the 11-minute mark of the stanza to race out in front 4-0.

“It was really nice to get the early lead there and get off to a good start,” Soderblom said. “We just kept building off that, so really good.”

James van Riemsdyk doubled Detroit’s lead to 2-0 at 1:37, cleaning up Moritz Seider’s shot that bounced off the backwall and out in front of Washington’s net where he snapped it past Thompson for his eighth goal of the campaign. The secondary helper went to Copp.

Funny enough, the Red Wings’ first two goals to kick off their Mom’s Trip were scored by brothers of sidelined Capitals skaters Ryan Leonard and Trevor van Riemsdyk, respectively.

Finding the back of the net less than five minutes later, Soderblom utilized his 6-foot-8, 252-pound frame to win a net-front battle against Dylan Strome and used his backhand to stretch the lead to 3-0 at 5:55. Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson each had an assist on Soderblom’s second goal of the season.

“It feels like I’ve been having a lot of good chances lately, so it was nice to get one past a goalie,” Soderblom said. “Just front net, trying to get position on the D. Kasp made a good play to the net, and I was able to get the puck in the net.”

At 10:05, Detroit struck again on an impressive breakaway goal from Seider, who skated into the Capitals’ defensive zone all alone after taking the puck from Anthony Beauvillier and snapped one in for his fifth of the campaign.

“I think he’s starting to use his shot a little bit more,” McLellan said about Seider. “It’s not the big slap shot. It’s just that feeder wrist shot that becomes effective. Both he and Simon were real important pieces tonight.”

Thirty-five seconds later, Aliaksei Protas went top shelf with a snap shot from the left face-off circle to get Washington on the board and make it 4-1 at 10:36 of the second period.

After Jakob Chychrun’s goal at 9:41 of the third period was waved off for goaltender interference by Protas, the Capitals challenged the call but it was upheld following video review.

With Washington’s net empty, Detroit captain Dylan Larkin cashed in for his 18th goal of the season for the 5-2 final at 17:10 of the final frame. The lone assist was credited to Edvinsson.

“These afternoon games, I think they sometimes favor the road team,” McLellan said. “You’re at the hotel, you have your meal, you come and get ready to play. When you’re at home, your rhythm is thrown off a little bit. I don’t know if that came into play, but we did have a good first period. It’s a lot easier to play against that period with the lead because they can turn the momentum, as we saw, at any given moment. I thought we handled ourselves well for most of the night.”

NEXT UP: On Sunday afternoon, the Red Wings and Capitals will finish their home-and-home back-to-back set at Little Caesars Arena.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on Detroit’s net-front play on Saturday

“It was a focal point of ours in practice yesterday. We were better.”

Leonard on unfortunately not being able to face his brother

“It would’ve been really cool. Obviously, six years younger so we’ve never had the chance to play with or against each other. It was still really cool to be able to play against the team and have a bunch of family.”

Soderblom on playing with Kasper and Nate Danielson

“It feels like we have good chemistry. We think alike out there. I feel like we are good together so far. It feels good when we play together.”