As the Red Wings embarked on this current five-game road trip, Alex DeBrincat and Marco Kasper were in a strange predicament.

DeBrincat, arguably the Wings’ best pure goal-scorer, hadn’t found the back of the net in the season’s first eight games before finally getting a goal Saturday against St. Louis. But there was no arguing DeBrincat was getting quality scoring chances, and he was tied for the team lead in assists with Dylan Larkin.

So DeBrincat was contributing offensively. It’s just his usual goals weren’t happening.

And Kasper, who scored 19 goals as a rookie last season, also was stuck on one goal. Kasper wasn’t getting to the net, as he quite often did last season, and wasn’t resembling the two-way force he so often looked like.

Both players weren’t quite themselves.

But in the first two games of this trip, both Red Wings victories, DeBrincat and Kasper may have found something.

Kasper had two goals and DeBrincat one Thursday in the 4-3 overtime victory over Los Angeles.

Both were among the Wings’ best players in what was one of the more resilient Detroit wins in a long time.

“We’re confident in what we can do,” DeBrincat said. “We’ve showed to this point of the season no matter what challenge we get, we fight through it and that’s a testament to our team. We’re playing good hockey right now.”

DeBrincat’s second-period power-play goal was his third goal in three games. This might have been the most important of the three, as DeBrincat one-timed a shot just 43 seconds after the Kings scored shorthanded, on the same power play.

“A couple of unfortunate bounces there on the power play, and they get a breakaway,” said DeBrincat, who had points in four straight games heading into Friday night’s game in Anaheim. “We’re pretty confident in our abilities on the power play, and to just not let it bother us. (We) go out there and put one in the net, so it was a good thing we could do it that quick and get the momentum back.”

A notoriously streaky goal scorer for much of his career, DeBrincat is capable of getting on a roll to offset the early-season cold stretch.

At no point in the last 10 or so days, with the goal-less streak closing in on double digits, was DeBrincat concerned or frustrated. The fact DeBrincat continued to get quality opportunities, as well as setting up teammates — and the Wings were winning games — all kept DeBrincat at ease knowing the puck was eventually going to go into the net.

“Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t,” DeBrincat said. “(I) just have to keep going and shooting.”

Another person not concerned was coach Todd McLellan. Being around DeBrincat last season, and seeing DeBrincat play for so many years, McLellan was confident DeBrincat’s luck would change.

“Scorers, pure scorers, which I consider Cat to be, you go in spells, where you don’t score but you’re still getting a lot of chances,” McLellan said. “If you’re not a true scorer, if you go in spells and not getting chances, you don’t know when it’s going to come again.

“Cat had more chances in the first 10 games this year than any 10-game segment last year that I coached, and it just didn’t go in for him. But he stuck with it and continued to shoot and he got rewarded, so good for him.”

Kasper, heading into the trip, was more concerned with doing all the details correctly and well, which in turn could help his offense. Goals and points are never truly going to be indicative of Kasper’s overall performance and contributions. HIs defensive ability and the energy Kasper can bring a line are valuable.

But every player likes to score goals and Kasper is no different — though getting to that point was going to take a little different route.

“For me right now the focus is just helping the team win in any possible way,” said Kasper earlier in the week in St. Louis. “If it’s not scoring, you just have to do the simple things right. Small things, details, like faceoffs, puck battles, stuff like that. That’s what I’m focusing on.”

There was speculation opponents might be playing Kasper differently the first several weeks, possibly catching on to his strengths and tendencies after such a successful entry into the NHL.

But Kasper hadn’t seen too much different.

“It’s never going to be easy,” Kasper said. “That’s why I’m just trying to focus on getting better every day. That’s what I can do and just try to improve whenever I can.

“Try to do the little things. I go back to that, and it’s going to be like that. When I’m not scoring, which for me is frustrating, I have to make the right decisions on the ice and just compete.”

‘Sticking with it’

If you didn’t stay up late to watch the Wings defeat Los Angeles, you missed a unique Wings victory.

The Kings, after scoring two late third-period goals after pulling the goalie and tying the game, looked to have won in overtime on Kevin Fiala’s goal. But Fiala interfered with Wings goaltender Cam Talbot, wiping the game-winning goal off the scoreboard.

The Wings would win the shootout 1-0 on Lucas Raymond’s goal to cap a crazy evening.

“We were all leaving, then we saw the replay and you kind of saw he (Fiala) was in the crease and people had contact there or something, and we just waited it out,” Kasper said. “Good for us that it wasn’t a goal and we got to win the game in a shootout.”

Talbot thought the game had ended in frustrating fashion.

“I came down the hallway and, truth be told, my stick didn’t make it down the hallway,” Talbot said. “It was in a few pieces, then I heard Todd say, ‘Hold on, Talbs. We’re going to go out there and challenge it.’

“So then we all kind of just funneled back into the tunnel. I knew that Kev(in) came right through my crease and I was kind of spun, so I was hoping for that call and we got it.”

McLellan liked the Wings’ perseverance.

“I give the guys credit for sticking with it, recovering, finding a way to get the lead and then recover after we gave it up,” McLellan said.

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan