No Dylan Larkin, no problem for the Red Wings, at least this one night.
With Larkin back in Detroit because of an upper-body injury, the Wings persevered without their captain Saturday as they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3.
Bobby Ryan, Darren Helm, Christian Djoos — on the power play, ending an 0-for-40 Wings drought — Evgeny Svechnikov (in his first game this season) and Frans Nielsen scored for the Wings, while goaltender Jonathan Bernier continued his fine stretch with 33 saves.
Coach Jeff Blashill said before the game Larkin would miss the two-game series in Chicago after getting hurt in Thursday's game against Nashville.
The Wings (7-13-3) matched their season-high of five goals for the second consecutive game and earned a second straight win for the first time this season.
Alex DeBrincat, Mattias Janmark and Dominik Kubalik had goals for the Blackhawks (11-7-4).
The Djoos power-play goal (the Wings' first in 15 games) gave the Wings a 3-1 lead at 18:27 of the second period. Djoos worked his way down the slot and beat screened goalie Malcolm Subban.
Svechnikov then increased the lead to 4-1 at 2:33 of the third period.
After Subban stopped him on a breakaway, Svechnikov stayed near the post and jammed a loose puck off Nielsen's shot for his first goal of the season.
Chicago came within two goals, 4-2, on Janmark's deflection past Bernier. But Bernier made several key stops as the Blackhawks surged, and the saves became that much more important when Svechnikov centered a pass to Nielsen skating down the middle, Nielsen scoring his first goal, and first since Feb. 29, 2020, a span of 24 games.
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