Detroit Red Wings weigh in on how to improve on special teams
Detroit Red Wings Lucas Raymond & Todd McLellan, Nov. 12, 2025 in Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings found ways to score, including off their power play, which marked an improvement on the past week.
Their outing on Thursday, Nov. 13, against the Anaheim Ducks marked two weeks since the teams’ first meeting this season in California, which sent the Wings on something of a slide. The Wings didn’t have a great start in their third straight game back home at Little Caesars Arena, but they pulled out a 6-3 victory that ended a three-game skid.
John Gibson made 15 saves through two periods; he did not return for the third after getting knocked over late in the second period; looking slow to get up, he was replaced by Cam Talbot.
Moritz Seider, Michael Rasmussen and Axel Sandin Pellikka scored in the first two periods to give the Wings a 3-2 lead. Jonatan Berggren picked up two assists in that span. Alex DeBrincat scored 5 seconds into a power play in the third period when he deflected Seider’s shot, giving the Wings a two-goal lead. DeBrincat scored again into an empty net with 2:01 to play.
Patrick Kane assisted on Seider and DeBrincat’s goals to reach 1,350 career points.
Downing a Ducks rally
The Ducks pulled within a goal when Mikael Granlund scored on a tip five minutes into the third period, but Dylan Larkin restored the cushion inside of a minute.
The Wings registered 10 shots on net in the first period but few were the gritty, dirty types around the net. Berggren had one of his team’s better scoring opportunities off a rush, but goalie Lukas Dostal saw the shot coming. Gibson also saw 10 shots in the first period, a couple of which were point-blank, crease-front chances.
The Wings broke through 24 seconds into their second power play, at 5:57 of the second period, when Seider fired a shot that deflected in off a Duck. That was the Wings’ second power play goal in 22 chances, dating back to their game against the Ducks in Anaheim on Oct. 31.
Rapid-fire scoring in second period
It took the Ducks less than two minutes to stem that momentum, as Cutter Gauthier scored from the right flank at 7:35 of the second period.
Rasmussen, who had just one goal, an empty-netter, coming into this game, made it 2-1 at 12:42 of the second period when he flung the puck on net. But two minutes later, the Ducks tied it up when Chris Kreider scored off the rush.
Sandin Pellikka made it 3-2 when he fired a shot through traffic from the blue line at 15:33.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com.
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