Red Wings’ season-high winning streak snapped with 6-3 loss to Sharks

DETROIT – Taking a loss for the first time in more than two weeks, the Detroit Red Wings saw their season-high seven-game winning streak come to a halt with a 6-3 setback to the San Jose Sharks at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night.

“It’s hard to talk about points when we lose a game,” said Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored two goals for the Red Wings (20-19-4; 44 points) to record his second straight multi-point game. “It was a nice stretch for us, but like [Moritz Seider] said, we need to recover. It’s always nice to have points and goals, but if a team doesn’t win it’s a different feeling.”

Goalie Ville Husso stopped 18 shots in his first NHL start in a month, while goaltender Alexandar Georgiev ended the night with 25 saves to help San Jose (14-26-6; 34 points) sweep the two-game season series against Detroit.

“A disappointing night for our group,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “A new experience for us in our few weeks here. We’ll have a good skate tomorrow. I’m anxious to see do we carry this with us, or do we respond? If we respond and we do the proper things, I don’t know if we’ll win or lose, but we’ll give ourselves a chance. If we don’t, we got a lot of work to do.”

The Sharks went up 1-0 just 1:45 into the game off a goal from Jan Rutta, who followed up on a shot from Will Smith and wristed the loose puck past Husso. Doubling their lead to 2-0 with 2:19 remaining in the first period, Nico Sturm was sent on a breakaway off a backhand pass from William Eklund then deked and scored around Husso for a short-handed goal.

Despite trailing by a pair, Detroit outshot San Jose, 12-6, over the opening 20 minutes.

“I thought the third period against Seattle [on Sunday] showed up in the game today,” McLellan said. “We were sloppy in that third, gave up quite a bit. We started the game that way. We didn’t break pucks out very well. When we did enter the offensive zone, we wanted to play east-west, crosscourt. Not a lot went to the net. Then you give up the short-handed goal, that really sets you back.”

But getting one back shortly after the first intermission, the Red Wings made it 2-1 at 1:28 of the second period. Jonatan Berggren sent the puck diagonally through the slot and it bounced off the boards to Simon Edvinsson, whose shot hit off the post before Tarasenko buried the rebound for his first goal of the game and fifth of the season.

“You try to get in those areas, but also there’s other guys who set it up and who put it back to the net,” Tarasenko said. “Guys who do it for a purpose, who get in the zone before. It’s the result of teamwork. That’s what we work on a lot in practices.”

Tyler Motte was helped off the ice at 14:01 of what finished as a scoreless second period after crashing hard into the boards behind the Sharks’ net. The Red Wings later announced the 29-year-old forward, who did not return to the game, sustained an upper-body injury.

“He’s obviously getting looked at,” McLellan said about Motte. “He hit the boards pretty hard, I think face-first. He was in rough shape.”

Twenty-four seconds into the third period, San Jose regained its two-goal lead when Eklund one-timed a quick cross-crease feed from Macklin Celebrini into the back of the net to make it 3-1.

As the final frame wound down, the Red Wings and Sharks started traded goals.

Scoring his second tally of the night off a rebound, Tarasenko sent a loose puck in the slot past Georgiev to cut it to 3-2 at 6:05 of the third period. The assists on Tarasenko’s sixth goal of the campaign went to Erik Gustafsson and Joe Veleno.

At 7:43 of the third period, Mikael Granlund’s power-play goal pulled San Jose ahead, 4-2. But Lucas Raymond answered for Detroit just 2:13 later, driving to the net and potting his 18th goal of the season after captain Dylan Larkin set him up to bring it to 4-3.

Raymond's third-period tally also pushed his point streak to five consecutive games.

Tyler Toffoli’s goal at 10:57 of the third period made it 5-3, then Mario Ferraro capitalized on an empty net with 1:38 left in the game for the 6-3 final.

“We just got to learn from that,” Seider said. “Obviously, you work really hard to get that goal back, then you just kind of give it to them in the next couple shifts. That’s something we have to learn and hopefully, looking back in a couple of months, it won’t happen again.”

Detroit’s impressive run (eight straight games) of scoring a power-play goal also ended on Tuesday, as the club went 0-for-2 on the man advantage.

As the Red Wings look to start a new winning streak, Seider said the players are eager for the challenges and opportunities of their upcoming four-game road trip.

“I think we can beat any team in the League,” Seider said. “Why not start in Florida with a good start for the road trip? Set ourselves up, feel good about ourselves and then go to work in the other cities as well.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will face off against the defending Stanley-Cup champion Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

McLellan on the areas he the Red Wings need to tighten up

“We talked a lot about playing faster east-west in our end, so that means going from one side of the rink to the other, and we didn’t do it. The last goal, we got beat off the wall. They changed sides behind the net, slung it to the crease area and we’re late. The pace of defending and offense wasn’t there. The teal team had better pace to their game in those areas and it cost us.”

McLellan on Husso’s night

“I would say he probably has to find a way to make one of those saves. I don’t know which one…But if anybody in here thinks that game was on the goaltending, it sure wasn’t.”

Seider on what he thought was missing on Tuesday

“We overcomplicated the game in the first period, then just chased the game a little bit. After 10 minutes, we realized playing easy and simple is a lot more effective than playing east-west hockey. Got some good, tough shots on net and made the goalie work. Obviously, felt a lot better then a rough break in the third. But I think it’s just a bump in the road. We’ll fix that and get ready for a good road trip.”

Seider on if he felt Detroit played a little too loose as their winning streak went on

“Maybe, yeah. That could be one of the reasons, but overall, I don’t think we should be that concerned. I know we are a good team. We’ll shake it off, go to work tomorrow in practice, make sure we’ll tighten things up and get ready for a good road trip.”