RECAP: Red Wings lose to Penguins, 4-1

DETROIT -- Seeing their four-game winning streak on home ice come to an end, the Detroit Red Wings fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1, at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday afternoon.

“The Pittsburgh team was everything we wanted to be tonight, and weren’t,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “They started on time with an intensity that backed us off. They were faster than we were. They smothered us in three zones and checked for their chances. Their game management – they didn’t give up a breakaway on a line change. They won the face-off, board and net battle. Those were all the things that we wanted to do tonight, and we didn’t do any of them.”

Goalie John Gibson made 27 saves for Detroit (24-15-4; 52 points), while netminder Stuart Skinner turned aside 11 shots for Pittsburgh (19-12-9; 47 points).

“Hopefully just a bump in the road, but from start to finish, just not good enough,” Moritz Seider said. “Not to the standard we can play and how we’ve been playing lately, and obviously that’s disappointing. You got to regroup and dig in a little bit more.”

The Red Wings didn’t record their first shot on goal until 12:18 into the first period -- at that point, the Penguins had seven shots and led 1-0 on a Bryan Rust goal that the native of Pontiac, Mich., scored at 3:44. It turned into a 2-0 advantage before the first intermission, as Yegor Chinakhov wristed a shot past Gibson on a breakaway spawned by a stretch pass down the middle of the ice from Ben Kindel at 17:30.

“We had an answer ready two nights ago, but not today,” Seider said about falling behind by a pair of goals in the first period. “That’s definitely something you got to look at, analyze and come up with a game plan.”

Finding the back of the net against Pittsburgh for the second time in as many games, Alex DeBrincat picked the corner with a snap shot from the middle of the left face-off circle on a partial breakaway to give Detroit some life and make it 2-1 at 15:06 the second period.

His club-leading 22nd goal of the campaign, DeBrincat is averaging a point-per-game since Nov. 13. The 28-year-old forward has also scored 18 goals since then, trailing only Nathan MacKinnon (20) of the Colorado Avalanche and Jason Robertson (20) of the Dallas Stars for the most among all NHL skaters in that span.

“It was a couple of good minutes in the second, but it wasn’t shift after shift after shift like we need,” J.T. Compher said.

Unfortunately, like the first and second periods, the Red Wings weren’t able to get much of an attack going in the third. After they pulled Gibson late, still down by just one, Rickard Rakell and Connor Dewar scored empty-net goals just 28 seconds apart in the game’s final minute to send the Penguins to their fourth straight win.

“I don’t think we did what we needed to do for enough of that game to deserve the result, especially the first period,” Compher said. “We didn’t play the way that we’ve been playing, which is going to the net, getting pucks to the net and being simple. We were trying to make the perfect play. When you get off to a start like that, give a team the lead, it makes it kind of hard.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will visit Canadian Tire Centre for the first time this season for an Atlantic Division clash against the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on moving Marco Kasper to the top line during Saturday’s matinee

“I didn’t think that line had anything going early in the game, and I’m not sure they had anything going in Pittsburgh. So, tried something different. Kasp, in the past, obviously last year, he’s proven that he could handle it so we made that move.”

Seider on the Penguins and what the Red Wings can improve on

“I think they’re really good team and they showed us over six periods, maybe even seven. I think we played really well when we have a chance. We just got to make sure we play that all the time, doing the simple things over and over again. When we do that, we’re a really good team. We didn’t do that quite often enough.”

Compher on if he felt Detroit was a little out of sync

“Probably not as predictable as we have been to each other. When you’re making the next play, the easy play, everyone knows where the puck is going. It’s either easier, I guess, to look cohesive.”