Detroit Red Wings come home with swagger: 'Never apologize for a win'

SEATTLE — Alex Lyon had the perfect summation as the Detroit Red Wings packed up for a "happy plane ride" home.

"Never apologize for a win," he said after the Wings ended their four-game road trip with a second straight victory, banking just enough points to make for a passing grade.

"Loved the bounce-back," coach Derek Lalonde said after the 4-3 overtime final against the Seattle Kraken. "Always a goal to get as many points as games on the road, especially this type of road trip and the type of opponent we faced. Obviously to lose the first two and fight back, great job on the guys. Two quality road wins vs. two quality teams fighting for their playoff lives. It’s a positive on the guys."

The Wings (29-20-6) are trying to pad their hold on a wild card in the Eastern Conference playoff spot; to that end, "every point matters," defenseman Ben Chiarot said after being the unlikely overtime hero Monday. "Especially right now with where we are. It’s a big two points points for us and four out of the eight that we could have had."

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Both victories were earned on the strength of goaltending. Lyon camouflaged a slow start by teammates in Seattle as James Reimer did in Calgary.

"Calgary, Reims, the first 10 minutes was huge," Chiarot said. "Today, Alex, big saves all game long. Any playoff team would tell you, the goalie is the most important player. Both of those guys were huge for us in the last two games."

So huge, in fact, the Wings were in the enviable position going into Monday's game of wondering if they should amend an earlier decision to start Lyon, after Reimer's big outing in the 5-0 victory over the Flames on Saturday. Ultimately, goaltending coach Alex Westlund gave the right advice.

"Alex (Lyon) was great," Lalonde said. "It was a good reset, good call by our goalie coach. This was a good problem to have. This was one of the tougher starting-goalie decisions we had coming into this game because of how well James played last time out."

Special teams weren't a huge factor Monday — the Kraken got one of their goals on a power play, and the Wings killed a penalty that spilled 16 seconds into overtime. Depth of scoring was: From the top defense pairing (Moritz Seider) to the second line (Lucas Raymond) to the fourth line (Daniel Sprong) to Chiarot, who celebrated his fourth goal of the season.

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"That’s the way we’re built," Chiarot said. "We’ve got guys who can score on the fourth line, defensemen that can get up in the rush — so we’ve got offense kind of from all over the lineup. That’s the key to our success — when we play good defensively, everyone is capable of contributing."

Lyon finished with 38 saves as he earned his 15th victory of the season. That was the kind of performance the Wings needed to see from him after he allowed seven goals in Edmonton (coming in in relief of an injured Ville Husso in the first period) and four goals in Vancouver. In Seattle, Lyon did his part, and his teammates again found a way to get the job done in the end. As Lyon put it, no need to apologize for two points.

"It’s never going to be good, it’s never going to be pretty," Lyon said. "You want it to be pretty all the time, but you’re going to have one out of every five games that’s like, oh yeah, we all felt great, we were buzzing. But I mean, it’s a long trip and in situations like this you just have to find a way.

"To have those first two games and the way they shook out, and then to come back with two gutsy wins, it’s awesome. We can’t get emotionally too high right now because there’s still so much hockey left to go, and so many critical points, but we’re going to enjoy this for a hot second. It’ll be a happy plane ride back."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

Next up: Avalanche

Matchup: Red Wings (29-20-6) vs. Colorado (34-18-4).

Faceoff: 7 p.m. Thursday; Little Caesars Arena, Detroit.

TV/radio: BSD; WXYT-FM (97.1).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings use depth, goaltending to pad playoff position