The Detroit Red Wings had a Halloween afternoon that turned ugly fast.
After building a 4-2 lead, Detroit watched the St. Louis Blues rip off three unanswered goals in the third period and skate away with a 5-4 win Saturday at Little Caesars Arena. The Red Wings looked in control for stretches, then let the game slip away in a hurry.
St. Louis struck first when Dalibor Dvorsky caught John Gibson moving the wrong way and finished a cross-crease deke.
Detroit answered later in the period after Blues goalie Joe Hofer fumbled a Nate Danielson dump-in behind his net. Michael Rasmusseen tracked down the loose puck and set up JT Compher, who buried it into the empty cage.
The Red Wings kept pressing in the second. Keegan Kolesar broke free 41 seconds into the period and beat Hofer with a deke for his first goal and first point with Detroit.
Lucas Raymond added another later in the frame, circling in the St. Louis zone before snapping a wrist shot past Hofer on the stick side.
St. Louis trimmed the margin before intermission, though. With 27.1 seconds left in the second period, Jimmy Snuggerud jammed in the rebound of a Robert Thomas shot to make it 3-2.
Detroit pushed the lead back to two early in the third when Emmitt Finnie scored on a power play for his sixth goal of the season. But the Blues refused to go away.
Pavel Buchnevich beat Gibson with a high shot on the stick side midway through the period, and then Justin Barron and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki scored 18 seconds apart to flip the game and give St. Louis its first lead since it was 1-0.
Gibson had a rough opening stretch. He didn’t stop a shot in the first period, and his first save didn’t come until 10:53 remained in the second, when he turned aside Dvorsky with a pad save. Raymond, meanwhile, has caught fire after going scoreless through the first eight games of the season; he now has five goals in his last six games.
The Blues also had a couple familiar faces back in Detroit. Former Red Wings forward Jonatan Berggren returned with St.
Louis and skated on the right wing of the second line with Pavel Buchnevich and Mason McTavish. Pius Suter, another ex-Red Wing, centered the Blues’ fourth line.
Detroit’s three-game home winning streak is over, and the Red Wings are now 7-12-3 in their last 22 games at Little Caesars Arena. The team heads back on the road Monday to face the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m.
In Other News...
Red Wings Icon Takes Rare Public Stand In Russia Hockey Debate
Nicklas Lidstrom rarely wades into political arguments around the sport, but the Red Wings vice president of hockey operations and an advisor to the Swedish Hockey Federation has taken a clear position after the Court of Arbitration for Sport annulled the IIHFs ban on Russia. With the IIHF expected to appeal, the debate has quickly shifted from a legal ruling to what national federations should do next if Russia is cleared to return to international competition.
For Lidstrom, the response should start with a boycott of international events if Russia is allowed back in. His former teammate Viacheslav Fetisov, now a member of the Russian State Duma, wants Russia back on the world stage too, though only if it competes under its own national symbols rather than as neutral athletes. For a hockey dispute that reaches well beyond the rink, those are two very different lines in the sand. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Suddenly Have A John Gibson Problem They Cant Ignore
A late collapse in St. Louis turned what looked like a solid road win into another frustrating night for Detroit, and it put John Gibson back under the microscope. The Red Wings carried a two-goal lead into the third period before the Blues stormed back with three unanswered goals, a burst that quickly flipped the game and left Detroit searching for answers after another missed opportunity.
Gibson was in net for the unraveling and gave up five goals on 15 shots, a line that will naturally draw attention whenever a game gets away from a team that expects more stability in goal. Still, the Red Wings are hoping this is just a rough outing rather than a sign of something bigger, because the version of Gibson they need is the one who looked far more like himself last season. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Fans Should Brace For A New Twist In The Larkin Standoff
Dylan Larkins standoff with the Red Wings has already taken a sharp turn, and now there may be another one coming. Detroit suspended the center without pay after he said he would not play for the team again, and the organization has made clear it views him as finished in Detroit. For now, Larkins trade list includes 10 teams, but not every club on it is a realistic landing spot because of salary-cap limits and the cost in assets it would take to make a deal work.
Elliotte Friedman added another layer to the situation by reporting that the list itself could change within the next 24 to 48 hours. That kind of fluidity only adds to the uncertainty around where this goes next, especially with some teams already looking like long shots as trade partners. For Red Wings fans, the story is no longer just about whether Larkin moves, but about how quickly the market around him could shift before anything becomes concrete. [Read more 🡒]