DENVER – Falling in regulation for the third consecutive game, something they hadn’t done since Nov. 24-28, 2025, the Detroit Red Wings were shut out by the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 at Ball Arena on Saturday night.
“I was really happy with our start,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “First period was excellent. We did a lot of things we wanted to do. It would’ve been nice to find a way to sneak one behind the goaltender and go in with the lead, but then the second period starts and we took -- or no, actually we didn't take, we were called for five penalties in 10 minutes. And that really changed the game, obviously. We had to overuse guys. Other guys sat there cold. Their star players got a lot of touches, and they moved the puck around well. Obviously, scored. So, it was it was frustrating that way, and we didn't deal real well with our emotions.”
Daniil Tarasov made 25 saves in his fourth appearance in the last six days for the Red Wings (7-8-3; 17 points), while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped all 27 shots he faced for the Avalanche (10-6-2; 22 points).
“I think 5-on-5, we played a pretty decent game,” Andrew Copp said. “Obviously, we didn’t score, maybe didn’t generate quite enough, but I thought we did a really good job of hanging with their speed and transition game. Kind of got away from us in the second period with all those penalties.”
Detroit came out strong— it registered 13 shots to Colorado's five and won the high-danger scoring chances battle 7-3 in the opening frame — and forced Blackwood to make several big saves, but the once-fierce rivals headed to the first intermission scoreless.
“If we can replicate the first period over and over again, I think you give yourself a good chance of being in every single game,” Moritz Seider said. “We know we’re not a super high-scoring team, but if we can defend I think we’re doing a good job.”
After the Red Wings killed off two penalties to open the second period, the Avalanche's power play struck on its third and fourth opportunities in a span of less than three minutes around the frame's halfway mark to go up 2-0.
“Obviously, it’s never ideal to spend eight minutes on the kill in the second period, but what are you going to do? Sometimes, you let the frustration get the best of you because you’re not happy with the circumstances out there,” Seider said.
Martin Necas kicked off the night’s scoring when he snapped home a puck at the right side of the crease that had shaken loose from under Tarasov at 9:45, and Nathan MacKinnon followed only 2:44 later with a one-timer from the middle of the left face-off circle that went top shelf far side.
Necas scored his second goal of the game at 7:15 of the third period, when the 27-year-old forward cleaned up the rebound of MacKinnon’s initial shot from below the goal line to stretch Colorado's lead to 3-0.
Cale Makar added another goal in quick succession, converting a wrister from the top of the right face-off circle on the power play for what ended up being the 4-0 final at 9:45.
“We’re playing some really good teams right now, but that shouldn’t be an excuse,” Copp said. “We got to find a way to just concentrate on the positives of the good things we’ve done. A lot of good 5-on-5 defense today and in the Vegas game (on Thursday) and then we just got to find a way to get some offense going.”
NEXT UP: The Red Wings will look to return to the win column when they take on the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday night.
