DETROIT — On a night when Detroit Red Wings rookies were contributing offensively, there was irony attached to captain Dylan Larkin talking about how his group defeated the Seattle Kraken with a “mature game.”

The Red Wings limited the Kraken to 22 shots, kept Seattle’s dangerous scoring chances to a minimum and played shutdown defense in the third period to beat them 4-2.  The win moved the Red Wings into first place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Boston Bruins.

“I thought we did a good job checking and again we didn’t really give up a whole lot coming our way,” Larkin said. “… We played a mature game tonight when I thought we were tired. That’s a great sign for our team.”

Since squandering a three-goal and losing to Buffalo in overtime game 5-4 Saturday, the Red Wings have turned in two superb defensive efforts against the New York Rangers (a 2-1 win) and the triumph against Seattle. The Red Wings allowed only five shots on goal in the third period. The Red Wings are playing much differently than they did during the collapse against the Sabres. Since coach Todd McLellan called them out that night, they are 2-0. They are also 3-0-1 in their last four.

At 12-7-1, Detroit now has five more wins than losses. That’s essentially where the Red Wings were at on their Western trip. They were 9-4. It means they have recovered from their 1-4 tailspin.

“I saw high minute players, highly-skilled offensive players, you take all of Larkin’s line, willing to lay pucks in behind, get off and hand off a good shift so we could stay ahead of them. We never got tired,” McLellan said. “I saw guys in shooting lanes, I saw the D with poise and making good breakout plays. I saw us win some draws that were really important.”

Good in the Circle

Larkin, Andrew Copp and even rookie Nate Danielson were above 50 percent in the faceoff circle.

“We checked well,” McLellan added. “We didn’t give the officials an opportunity to get involved in the game and put them back on the power play. So it all goes together. There’s just not one simple thing. It flows.”

Emmitt Finnie scored the go-ahead goal midway through the second period. That meant that the Red Wings protected that lead for more than 29 minutes. Larkin clinched it with an empty-net goal (his 600th career point) at 19:30 of the third

“Low drama,” Larkin said. “We kept it to the outside and I thought we were really good in face offs… We won some big ones and the important ones and were able to exit the zone. So. Yeah, I really like that (third) period. We got a mature period out of our hockey team.”

The 10-0-1 when leading after two periods. The Red Wings are now tied for the fifth-highest points (25) in the league. They are now even in goal-differential. It’s a surprising status for a team that has struggled to find consistency.