RECAP: Kane ties Modano’s U.S.-born NHL player points mark in Detroit’s 3-1 loss to Los Angeles

DETROIT -- Nineteen days after scoring his 500th career goal, Patrick Kane recorded his 1,374th career point – assisting on Alex DeBrincat’s third-period tally -- to tie Mike Modano for the most points by a United States-born player in NHL history in the Detroit Red Wings’ 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night.

“Nothing really went right for us tonight, so it’s tough to really think about right now,” Kane said. “But hopefully, the next game’s a better result and can move past Mike next game. So, that’d be nice to do that and do it with a win.”

The Red Wings (32-17-5; 69 points) saw their five-game point streak come to an end and goaltender John Gibson, who stopped 19 of 21 shots, had his eight-game winning streak halted. At the other end, netminder Anton Forsberg made 27 saves to help the Kings (22-16-13; 57 points) stretch their point streak to six consecutive contests.

“We have to be human beings about this,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “None of us are happy that we lost the game tonight, but [Kane] also reached a pretty significant milestone. He’s one away from being on top of that mountain. We're happy for him. We're excited for him. Twenty years from now when he’s telling the story, yeah, maybe it was in a loss, but it’s not going to hurt as much. So, we have to be happy for him. That’s the positive in the game tonight. There were some other positives. We pushed it right to the end. We didn’t give up as many shots. So, there were some things that we did well. We just didn’t do enough positive things for the whole night, and that’s what we got.”

The Red Wings killed off back-to-back penalties just past the halfway mark of the first period but came up empty after they went on their first of three power plays of the night at 13:04, leaving things still scoreless at the first intermission.

“I think we came out really good with our first power play tonight,” Moritz Seider said. “Moved the puck well. Really had good looks around because we were just moving their killers around. They were doing a great job of striking whenever they could, and I think we handled it really well. Then, we just kind of dipped.”

Exactly 10 minutes into the second period, thanks to some good forechecking by its fourth line, Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead when Samuel Helenius one-timed Jeff Malott’s backhand dish from below the goal line between Gibson’s pads.

At 18:21 of the middle frame, Detroit earned its second power play when Ben Chiarot drew a hooking penalty against Kuzmenko. But despite having that extra skater, the Red Wings again couldn’t get anything past Forsberg before the second intermission and during the brief carry-over time to open the final stanza.

“They’re predictable with what they’re doing back there,” Kane said of the Kings, who also had a 17-10 shot advantage through 40 minutes. “I think we had a plan coming in to try and dump it in a certain way. When we didn’t do that, they seemed to get possession. It’s almost like you’re wasting energy chasing the puck.”

Kuzmenko doubled Los Angeles’ lead to 2-0 at 6:46 of the third period, finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala with a snap shot from the bottom of the right face-off circle for a power-play goal.

“A couple too many mistakes led to easy goals against,” Seider said. “I think they didn’t really have to work for them. That’s probably the message of the game.”

After pulling Gibson, the Red Wings spoiled Forsberg’s shutout bid to make it 2-1 at 17:45 of the third period. Seider got the puck from Kane and sent it through the slot to DeBrincat at the back post, where the 28-year-old forward quickly buried his club-leading 28th goal of the season.

Taking advantage of Detroit’s empty net, Corey Perry wristed one in from long distance at 18:47 for the 3-1 final.

“We have this feeling in the locker room where, going into every game, we have a chance to win and it’s a great feeling right now,” Kane said. “But, just didn’t have it tonight for whatever reason. Definitely could feel the frustration, which I think is fine if you harness it right and use that frustration as good energy. Maybe we had a couple looks there in the third but couldn’t capitalize.”

NEXT UP: Continuing their three-game homestand, the Red Wings will host the Washington Capitals at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on Tuesday’s loss

“It didn’t feel like we had the energy we had the last three or four nights in the game for whatever reason,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “You got to give them credit. They checked very well, but we weren’t really completing or executing two pieces of the puzzle. We may get one done, but we couldn’t get to the second… They checked real well, kept us to the outside and didn’t allow us to do what we wanted to do.”

Kane on where he felt the Red Wings struggled

“We chased the puck a lot. Sloppy with the puck. Defensively, I think we were fine. It seems like we didn’t really give up much defensively. Maybe one chance in the slot there in the second and one on the power play for their goals, but definitely need to create a little bit more. As a guy who’s supposed to be offensive, you take that upon yourself. So, definitely need to be better in that area.

Kane on playing while this milestone countdown is going on

“It might be in the back of your head a little bit, but besides that still playing the game right, still playing the game of hockey, so try not to think about that stuff too much. It comes up a lot when you’re between games, on your phone or whatever it may be. So, it is what it is. Definitely would be nice to get it done here soon and just worry about some more important things ahead for the rest of the year.”

Seider on what went wrong versus Los Angeles

“We were just a little slow with the puck overall. Obviously, they’re doing a good job on the forecheck and then they kind of just sit and wait in the neutral zone. We didn’t really have the answers ready.”