DETROIT _ Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard stopped plenty of shots by the Edmonton Oilers. But he couldn't stop the Red Wings' winless streak.
Howard made 26 saves in the Wings' 2-1 loss to the Oilers on Sunday night at Joe Louis Arena. The Wings extended their losing streak to five games and go on the road to face the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
The Oilers were playing the second game of a back-to-back and their third game in four days. They beat the New York Islanders, 4-3 in a shoot-out, on Saturday.
The Wings failed to capitalize on an early power play in the third period, trailing 2-1. Darnell Nurse went off for hooking Andreas Athanasiou at 1:33.
The Oilers used a late power play in the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
Connor McDavid sent a pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who scored from the left circle at 19:40 of the second period. The Wings' penalty kill was so focused on McDavid, it left Nugent-Hopkins open for an easy goal.
Ex-Wing Jonas Gustavsson finished with 21 saves for the Oilers. He made a big save to deny Dylan Larkin midway through the second period, with the game tied.
Larkin went to the penalty box with 2:56 left in the second period after being called for interference against Oilers defenseman Eric Gryba.
The Wings killed off that penalty, but were called for another with 30 seconds left in the period. Mike Green went off for tripping McDavid. And then McDavid made the Wings pay with his team-leading ninth assist on Nugent-Hopkins' second goal of the season.
The Wings opened the scoring with a power-play goal from Justin Abdelkader at 8:53 of the first period. Abdelkader knocked in a rebound after a shot by defenseman Brendan Smith. It was Abdelkader's third goal of the season.
It was the first power play allowed by the Oilers on the road this season.
The Wings had gone 2-for-26 on the power play over their previous seven games.
The Oilers tied the game at 16:39 of the first period on Tyler Pitlick's fourth goal of the season. Pitlick scored on a wraparound.
