Wings: From early disappointment to ‘full of joy’ in rally over Blues
Detroit Red Wings J.T. Compher, Jonatan Berggren & Todd McLellan, Oct. 25, 2025 in Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings gave away the first half of the game, then showed up and made a night of it.
Their outing on Saturday, Oct. 25, against the St. Louis Blues magnified in importance after the debacle of the mid-week road trip, but for the first 1½ periods, the Wings looked just as lackluster at Little Caesars Arena. Then they found their pace, and found the net, and found themselves celebrating a 6-4 victory.
It took rookie Emmitt Finnie and veteran J.T. Compher scoring less than a minute apart near the end of the second period for the Wings (6-3) to show some life. Jonatan Berggren had scored earlier, after the Blues had scored four straight goals.
Alex DeBrincat – frustrated through eight games as one after another great scoring chance was denied – erupted in celebration when his shot finally found the back of a net, midway through the third period. Simon Edvinsson followed up less than a minute later with his second goal of the season when he flung the puck through traffic from the blue line. Aided by John Gibson, the penalty killers came through when the Blues got a power play with less than four minutes to play. Edvinsson scored his second of the game into an empty net with 1:13 to play.
Patrick Kane (upper body) was unavailable for a fourth straight game. Having tinkered with the lines in the last game without reward, this night the change was to go with 11 forwards (scratching underachieving Michael Rasmussen)Â and seven defensemen (Travis Hamonic made his first appearance since opening night).
The Blues scored while James van Riemsdyk served two minutes for a tripping infraction. Less than 10 seconds remained in the penalty when Jordan Kyrou fired the puck top shelf on Gibson, at 7:43 of the first period.
The Blues worsened the damage at 12:54 when Jake Neighbours and Jimmy Snuggerud were both in front of Detroit’s net, and Neighbours knocked the puck across the goal line.
Just like the previous two outings, the Wings were outshot in the first period, 12-4. And just like the previous two games, the response wasn’t there when the second period began. Edvinsson, on a three-game streak of taking penalties, landed in the box 27 seconds in; 32 seconds later, Pavel Buchnevich converted to make it 3-0.
Less than three minutes later, it was 4-0, with Neighbours taking advantage of having no one on him to score his second of the game.
The Wings finally got on the scoreboard during a power play when Berggren one-timed a pass from Andrew Copp past Jordan Binnington, at 7:52. But instead of turning that goal into momentum, the Wings were back to killing a penalty inside a minute. Finnie limped off after blocking a shot but returned and earned his fourth goal of the season when he redirected the puck from just outside the crease.
Compher deflected a shot from Travis Hamonic in midair to pull the Wings within a goal in the last minute of the second period.
The Wings (6-3-0) next face the Blues (3-4-1) in the back end of their home-and-home, heading to St. Louis for a rematch on Tuesday (8:15 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.Â