Detroit Red Wings seek to turn winning road trip into big home stand
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Detroit Red Wings headed home for a five-game stand feeling, on the whole, pretty good about themselves.
They take on Atlantic Division rival Tampa Bay Lightning — a team neck-and-neck with the Wings in the standings — on Sunday coming off a loss, but the first two games of their trip were victories, part of a seven-game point streak .
"I think it's a really good road trip," J.T. Compher said after scoring in Friday's 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. "Disappointing result tonight, but that's a really good hockey team and in this building, they play super tight, they play the right way. "
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The Wings (23-17-5) went from beating the Los Angeles Kings at home to collecting road victories against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers, both division rivals.
"I think we're doing a lot of good things," Compher said. "The attention to detail and playing the right way, playing for each other. It's blocking shots and playing right defensively and taking hits to make plays. It's the little things winning teams do. We're still continuing to learn and grow and do all those things as consistently as possible."
Alex Lyon made 26 saves against the Hurricanes, who limited the Wings to 12 shots.
"We lost tonight, but I'm a big believer in if you just play the right way, good things are going to happen," Lyon said. "I thought we played the right way. It's the third game of a three-game road trip against a very difficult team, and I thought the boys played so hard. We played the right way. I thought it was one of our tightest defensive games in a long time.
"These are the tests where good teams don't let one turn into two, two into three. We just have to get back on the horse."
"The horse" is in the Wings' barn through the end of the month: Four straight games against teams in or near the playoff picture and then the Ottawa Senators, who walloped the Wings back in December.
"Probably 10 days ago, before we started playing this little stretch here, I think we were looking down the barrel at some pretty good teams," Lyon said. "But we can't take it for granted. We are going to have to bring our 'A' game if we are going to win. We just have to keep going."
Compher's power play goal made it 2-2 in the final minute of the second period. It stayed that way until Andrei Svechnikov scored while defenseman Jeff Petry was serving a penalty for tripping midway through the third period.
"The goal going into every road trip is to get as many points or more as games played," coach Derek Lalonde said. "Four points in three games, we won the road trip. It just felt like a little bit of a missed opportunity tonight. We put ourselves in a really good situation. To be tied 2-2 on the road with 10 minutes left — I liked the way we were defending, I don't think they were going to score a five-on-five goal. Unfortunately we took a penalty there and that was the difference in the game. Again, 2-2, 10 minutes left, you'd like to get a point out of that."
With Sunday's game moved from an original 5 p.m. start time to 7 because of the Detroit Lions' home playoff game, the Wings scheduled Saturday as a day off. Ben Chiarot did not finish Friday's game after aggravating a nagging upper-body injury, and Lalonde did not know his availability for Sunday.
Friday's loss was only the second defeat in regulation in a 10-game stretch (7-2-1).
"I think we're just a little more responsible with our game," Lalonde said. "The way we are defending, even tonight was a pretty good game. We were doing a lot of what has been successful for us on this trip."
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.
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Next up: Lightning
Matchup: Red Wings (23-17-5) vs. Tampa Bay (23-17-5).
Faceoff: 7 p.m. Sunday; Little Caesars Arena, Detroit.
TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-AM (1270).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings seek to turn winning road trip into big home stand
