SALT LAKE CITY -- Skating in their final contest before the NHL’s Olympic break, the Detroit Red Wings surrendered a pair of first-period goals and couldn’t mount a comeback in an eventual 4-1 setback to the Utah Mammoth at Delta Center on Wednesday night.
“We had a disappointing start,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “I don’t think we want to cough a goal up like that right off the bat. Then to go down 5-on-3, now we’re chasing it the whole night. I thought we created enough opportunities to get ourselves back in. We couldn’t beat a real hot goaltender and that was probably the difference, when it was all said and done.”
Between their respective pipes, goaltender John Gibson made 21 saves for the Red Wings (33-19-6; 72 points) while netminder Karel Vejmelka turned aside 29 shots for the Mammoth (30-23-4; 64 points).
“Their goalie played really well and seems to play well against us,” said captain Dylan Larkin, who scored Detroit’s lone goal on the power play. “We just didn’t really get the puck past them at crucial times. Had looks on the power play, but we’re just missing that finishing touch around the net.”
Just 57 seconds into the finale of their two-game road trek, the Red Wings were looking at a 1-0 deficit after Sean Durzi’s shot from the side of the right face-off circle snuck through Gibson’s pads. Then the Mammoth scored another at 8:11, this one coming 21 seconds into a 5-on-3 power play when Nick Schmaltz snapped Barrett Hayton’s goal-line feed into the back of the net from the low slot to make it 2-0.
“First one, an unlucky bounce,” Lucas Raymond said. “And then a 5-on-3…it’s not an ideal way to start a game, so kind of playing catch-up from there.”
Right before the six-minute mark of the second period, Travis Hamonic took exception to a hard check from Brandon Tanev in the right-corner boards, sparking a drop of the gloves that saw Detroit’s veteran defenseman land several good blows on Utah’s veteran forward.
Raymond was robbed of his 20th goal of the season later in the frame on Detroit’s second power play of the night -- Vejmelka made a diving glove save at 16:33 -- before another opportunity not long after, which included 1:02 of carry-over time to start the third period, also didn’t bear any fruit for the Red Wings.
Larkin pointed out that those back-to-back power plays did generate some momentum, though.
“I don’t think the team dipped when we came off the ice, so that’s a positive,” Larkin said. “When we get back from the break, it’s going to be imperative that, down the stretch, the power play is continuing to build momentum but also scoring.”
After Dylan Guenther stretched Utah’s lead to 3-0 at 4:40 of the third period, Detroit showed some late life and foiled Vejmelka’s shutout bid at 15:52. With Gibson off the ice for a 6-on-4 man advantage, Moritz Seider’s shot from the point went off both the end boards and James van Riemsdyk before Larkin buried it in front for his 26th tally of the campaign.
