Detroit Red Wings nab 5th straight win, 4-3 over Islanders in OT

The Detroit Red Wings didn’t want the fighting New York Islanders to gain ground on their visit to Little Caesars Arena.

There was a lot to appreciate on Saturday: Wings legend Alex Delvecchio celebrated his 90th birthday at the game; Tigers legend Lou Whitaker was there too, and longtime anthem singer Karen Newman made her first appearance of the season.

Rookie defender Moritz Seider also caused jubilation at the final score: He scored his third career goal and the second in overtime to a 4-3 win and extended the Wings’ winning streak to five games, the longest for six in a row from March 23 to April 2, 2019.

The wings improved to 13-9-3 and 9-2-2 at LCA.

“Playing at home is always nice,” said Seider. “I think we’ve just gained a lot of confidence.”

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Filip Hronek and Sam Gagner buried an Islanders lead in the first period and Givani Smith drew in the second period when he climbed up the left side and scored a bar down. Oliver Wahlstrom scored twice to force the game beyond regulation. Alex Nedeljkovic made 20 saves to push the Islanders’ winless skid down to 10.

Seider scored a one-off goal at 3:33 and showed how much work he has done on this aspect of his game.

“One of the things we would have said he had to get better over the last few years was that he had a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said coach Jeff Blashill. “He worked on it. The really good players do that, they work on it and they are rewarded for it.

“He has a way of getting up in the moment, and he certainly got up in that moment.”

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Veleno appears again

Joe Veleno returned to the line-up after three games with an upper body injury. Veleno started in a row with Pius Suter and Filip Zadina, replacing Smith, who moved to fourth row with Carter Rowney and Gagner. This is a good seat for Veleno, who is tall (6 feet 1, 205 pounds) and has skills that can be better put to better use when around aggressively minded players. Veleno, 21, started the season at Grand Rapids, but it’s clear he belongs in Detroit.

Zadina disappears

The wings went by a margin from the first third as Hronek shot a puck through traffic and behind Ilya Sorokin and Gagner fired a puck behind the goal line, which also went into the Islanders’ net. But the wings had to play from behind because of the monstrous style of play with man advantage. Cal Clutterbuck caught a pass when leaving his own zone, and when he entered Detroit’s zone, it was easy for him to bypass Zadina, who stopped skating and hit the net trying to cram the puck on Nedeljkovic.

Special teams appear

The Wings gave up a goal on their first power play; that was 2:45 in the game. They were 2-1 ahead when they got their second power play at 10:19 when Wahlstrom was called in response to Erne’s big check against Anthony Beauvillier to chase Adam Erne. They then got 1:17 with two additional skaters when Scott Mayfield was called for game delay. Dylan Larkin punched Sorokin, but by and large the Wings weren’t much threatened. The Islanders scored the second goal in their first power play when Wahlstrom converted after just 38 seconds. Wahlstrom – which the Islanders drafted in 11th place in 2018, five places after the Wings had conquered Zadina – achieved another power play in the third third.

Contact Helene St. James at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more about the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings, is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Triumph Books. Personalized copies are available through their email.

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