DETROIT — The Red Wings keep piling up victories at a rate probably nobody expected.
They capped off an impressive back-to-back set Wednesday, defeating the expansion Seattle Kraken, 4-3 in a shootout.
Coming 24 hours after a big road win in Boston, the Wings stretched their win streak to a season-high four games.
Dylan Larkin and Adam Erne scored goals in the shootout, as the Wings won the shootout 2-1 to clinch the victory.
Wings goaltender Thomas Griess earned his 150th career victory.
Seattle's Ryan Donato scored his second goal of the game and fifth of the season, tying the game, 3-3.
Jamie Oleksiak skated the puck into the zone and left the puck for Donato skating down the wing, Donato beat Griess from near the dot, at 14:16 of the third period.
Lucas Raymond, who earlier Wednesday won the NHL's rookie of the month award for November, snapped a third period 2-2 tie.
Raymond got the puck in the slot, quickly whirled, and snapped a shot that Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer barely reacted to for Raymond's 10th goal.
With each game, each victory, there's a growing sense the Wings can sustain this success and play meaningful, important games late in the regular season.
"Absolutely, we had that from Day One," Larkin of the team's confidence after Tuesday's victory in Boston. "It was a message through training camp. We worked hard through training camp and we came out of the gate hot and we've had some tough stretches (but) we've been building confidence and getting better as time has gone on through the season."
Robby Fabbri (power play) and Vladislav Namestnikov added goals for the Wings, while Vince Dunn (power play) and Donato answered with Seattle goals.
The Wings found out before the game they'd be without forward Tyler Bertuzzi, who entered COVID-19 protocol, joining defenseman Danny DeKeyser.
Bertuzzi is the lone NHL player who is unvaccinated. He will be tested again Thursday.
Danny DeKeyser has been in protocol for almost a week.
Fabbri opened the game's scoring, on the power play.
Larkin took two bad-angle shots from the goal line at Grubauer and the second one bounced to Fabbri in the slot, who had a largely open net to score his fifth goal at 4:46 of the second period.
Namestnikov tied it 2-2 just before the end of the second period. Namestnikov drove the down the slot and snapped a shot that bounced off Grubauer's glove and body and into the net.
After watching goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic get the last four starts in net, Greiss returned to the Wings lineup and stopped 21 shots including a key save on Yanni Gourde in overtime.
Nedeljkovic won the last three starts and was a key reason for the Wings' victory in two of the three games.
"He's (Nedeljkovic) been a huge part of our team and so has Thomas Greiss," said Larkin of the Wings' goaltending duo. "Our goalies have consistently given us a chance and that's all you can ask."
Greiss didn't have much of a chance on the first two Seattle goals.
Dunn earned his second goal of the season with a shot from the point on the power play, Greiss having quite a few bodies screening in front.
Dunn's goal tied the game 1-1, and the Kraken took a 2-1 lead on Donato's goal.
Jordan Oesterle slipped in the corner and lost the puck to Joonas Donskoi near the boards. Donskoi found Gourde near the hashmarks, and Gourde froze Greiss and dished a pass to a wide open Donato across the slot.
"At the end of the day we're going to need both guys to be good," coach Jeff Blashill said after Tuesday's game in Boston. "There's no belief that Alex is going to play every game the rest of the way. We're going to need both guys to be good and I have full belief Thomas Greiss can go back in the net and play a real good hockey game and help us win a game."
Blashill felt Nedeljkovic had gotten on a bit of a roll in the last week, and earned the consecutive starts.
"Alex separated himself both in his play and statistically a little bit, so we went with him and he got hot," Blashill said. "Who knows for sure what we're going to do going forward. He's (Nedeljkovic) definitely kind of taken the ball and run with it a little bit but we're going to need Thomas to be good, too."
