Dana Wakiji
| Special to The Detroit News
Emmitt Finnie scored the Red Wings’ only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Mammoth at Little Caesars Arena.
Emmitt Finnie scored the Red Wings’ only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Mammoth at Little Caesars Arena.
Detroit — It often is the first game back home after a long road trip that proves to be a problem.
However, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Islanders Tuesday night, 3-2, at home.
But on Wednesday in the second half of the back-to-back, the Wings could not sustain a late rally, falling to the Utah Mammoth, 4-1.
“Tonight for me the difference was obvious,” Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “It was play around our net and it wasn’t just the goals we gave up. It was some chances that they had even earlier in the game. They were much better around their blue paint. And I’m not talking about goaltending.
“I’m talking about clearing and batting pucks away, making sure that sticks were on plays that were made in towards that scoring slot area. We weren’t.”
Falling behind in the second game of a back-to-back does not help.
“Scoring first, especially in a back-to-back game, it alleviates a little pressure on the offense,” McLellan said.
The Wings have another set of back-to-back games this weekend, facing the Washington Capitals in Washington on Saturday and again at home Sunday afternoon.
Utah forward Clayton Keller opened the scoring at 1:44 of the second period. Cam Talbot made the save on Nick Schmaltz’s shot but couldn’t corral the rebound.
BOX SCORE: Mammoth 4, Red Wings 1
The puck popped right out to Keller, who buried it for his 11th goal of the season. In 14 career games against the Red Wings, Keller has nine goals and nine assists.
The Wings appeared to get a little momentum with their power play later in the second but after killing it off, the Mammoth came down and Jack McBain scored for a 2-0 Utah lead.
At 9:55 of the third while on the power play, Emmitt Finnie got a nice pass from John Leonard behind the net and beat Mammoth goalie Karel Vejmelka, cutting Utah’s lead to 2-1.
“It was a great play by Leonard,” Finnie said. “We had numbers behind the net and I figured we were going to come out with the puck. So I was just trying to put myself in a good position in the slot and Lenny made a great pass.”
It marked Leonard’s first point with the Wings since his recall from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. The Wings finished 1-4 on the power play.
“We had looks, we had zone time, we just didn’t get it done and didn’t get pucks through,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “Credit to them, they had a tight diamond and I’m sure Todd will tell you both on their penalty kill and five-on-five, they probably won the net play tonight. And that was probably the story of the game.”
After the Wings scored, the Mammoth responded with two quick goals, one from Dylan Guenther and another from Kevin Stenlund to ice the game late.
“I thought for the most part we were in the game and it felt a lot like the Islander game where back and forth, up and down the ice at times and then at times not much going on and playing defensively,” Larkin said.
“In the third we pushed and got the goal and then got a little too excited to get the second one and it cost us. That went downhill after that, but thought the game was out of reach by then.”
Dana Wakiji is a freelance writer.
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