RECAP: Red Wings ‘learned to deal with frustration a little bit’ on their way to 5-1 victory in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG -- Finishing off a grind of a three-game road swing that took them through three different cities in four nights, the Detroit Red Wings stretched their point streak to five straight contests by pulling away from the Winnipeg Jets for a 5-1 victory at Canada Life Centre on Saturday night.

“It took a lot of different guys throughout the road trip, and it helps when you have good goaltending,” said J.T. Compher, who scored two goals for his first multi-goal game and fourth multi-point performance this season. “John and Cam were great on this trip and have been for a while. It’s good to get the points and we just keep it going.”

Netminder John Gibson continued his stellar stretch for Detroit (32-16-5; 69 points), turning aside 26 shots for his eighth straight win and improving to 17-2-0 in his past 19 starts. In the crease for Winnipeg (20-24-7; 47 points), goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves.

“It’s easy to point out the third period and the way we played there,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “I thought the first and second, we learned to deal with frustration a little bit. We had some shifts go our way and some that didn’t. A little bit of frustration, and I think that was good frustration. Guys are pushing each other now and they’re getting a little upset when it’s not going their way, but we needed to channel it the right way and we did that in the third.”

Detroit had one power play in the first period -- Morgan Barron was whistled for holding Compher with 5:50 remaining -- but Winnipeg’s penalty kill did a good job of clogging shooting lanes and held the visitors to just two shots in that two-minute span. Though neither side ended up scoring in the opening frame, the Red Wings outshot the Jets 11-8.

The scoreless deadlock ended at 10:08 of the second period, with Cole Koepke sweeping in the rebound of Logan Stanley’s point shot on his backhand to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.

But with 4:10 remaining in the second period, right after Detroit’s second power play of the night expired and amidst a net-mouth scramble, Compher’s persistence paid off as he got Andrew Copp’s below-the-goal-line pass past Hellebuyck to tie it 1-1.

“Kaner and Copper make a great entry on the power play, and just kind of hard work behind the net to get in front of me,” Compher said of how he scored his first goal of the night.

The third period belonged to the Red Wings, who broke things open with four unanswered goals -- the first time they found the back of the net four times in a single stanza this season.

Just 1:43 into the third period, Compher notched his second goal on a nice rush opportunity to give the Red Wings a 2-1 lead. Upon entering the offensive zone, James van Riemsdyk passed ahead to Emmitt Finnie in the left face-off circle, and the rookie forward delivered a one-touch feed to Compher that the latter finished at the back post.

“He’s a good right-handed face-off guy, fairly responsible defensively,” McLellan said of Compher, who has eight goals this season. “We use him penalty killing and a little bit of power-play time, and we’d like to see him get rewarded. He’s had so many chances lately. Finally, went in for him tonight. Those were big goals to get us even and get us the lead.”

Extending his individual point streak to five consecutive contests and netting his 18th goal of the season, Lucas Raymond watched his shot -- amidst a scrum in the crease -- pop off Hellebuyck’s stick and go above the Commerce, Mich., native before it landed in to get it to 3-1 at 8:11 of the third period. Marco Kasper and Jacob Bernard-Docker had the helpers.

Set up by Copp and Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal exactly 10 minutes later to push it to 4-1. With the secondary helper on DeBrincat’s team-leading 27th goal of the season, Kane moved within one point of tying Mike Modano as the NHL’s all-time scoring leader among United States-born players.

Kasper, who was assisted by Raymond, capped the scoring with his fifth goal of the season at 18:43 of the third period for the 5-1 final.

“We definitely didn’t play one of our more complete games the first two periods,” said Kasper, who has notched six points (two goals, four assists) in his last five games. “So, I think just to go out there and win a game like this, it’s huge for us moving forward. Obviously, you want to get off to a better start, but it’s good we can win those games.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will begin a three-game homestand, starting with the Los Angeles Kings at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on if he feels his team is growing mentally stronger

“Without a doubt our team is growing in that area. We can work all we want on systems, passing, shooting, skating and all that type of stuff, but sometimes it’s between the ears. We’ve stressed all year that we’re going to get better in that area, and I believe we are.”

Compher on Saturday’s win

“It wasn’t super pretty for two periods. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. We stuck with it and ended up finding a way to win.”

Compher on the confidence the players have knowing Gibson and Talbot are behind them

“We have full trust in both of them. They’re making the big saves when we need it because as good as we want to play – we want to be as detailed as possible and not give up chances – but they’re going to get chances. Both those guys are giving us a chance every time they’re in the net.”