EDMONTON, Alberta_The Detroit Red Wings fell just short of grabbing another last-second point.
Dylan Larkin scored with 35 seconds left in regulation Saturday at Rogers Place, but the Wings couldn't get another in the short amount of time left and wound up losing, 4-3, to the Edmonton Oilers.
The Wings earned a point the previous night when they scored with 2 seconds to go in regulation at Calgary.
Petr Mrazek did what he could to keep his teammates within reach against the fresher Oilers. Darren Helm scored midway through the third period, but Patrick Maroon restored Edmonton's two-goal lead 4 minutes later, after Mrazek had made a big save on Leon Draisaitl.
Anthony Mantha scored his 14th goal of the season in the first period, set up by Henrik Zetterberg on what was his ninth point in the last six games. Ryan Sproul was lost in the second period to what appeared to be a left leg injury after sliding hard into the boards. Mrazek had made 25 saves after two periods to keep the Wings within 2-1.
The Wings had a good flurry early in the third period, with Helm shooting just wide and Danny DeKeyser denied a slap shot. Their task got harder 7 minutes into the period when Jordan Eberle skated through the low slot and threw a backhand into the net. Helm scored for the second time in two days when he used his speed to go up the middle and edge the Wings back within a goal, at 10:26.
Connor McDavid turned heads less than 2 minutes into the game when he used his speed to get by Sproul and Xavier Ouellet and drove the puck to the crease and beat Mrazek. That was one of four shots Mrazek saw in the first 4 minutes while Cam Talbot didn't see any work until nearly 7 minutes in, when Helm fired a shot from the bottom of the left circle off a set-up by Dylan Larkin. Frans Nielsen set up Tomas Tatar into the left circle, but Tatar fanned on the shot. Zetterberg tried to sneak the puck in by the left post near the period's midpoint.
Zetterberg teamed up with Mantha to tied the game at 15:04, when Mantha arrived in the low slot to connect on Zetterberg's set-up. It would have been a good period had the Wings escaped it with a 1-1 tie, considering they were playing on tired legs, but Zack Kassian tipped Adam Larsson's shot off a face-off with 22 seconds to go. The Wings were outshot, 13-7 in the first period.
The Wings played with a short bench after losing Sproul early in the second period. After an early spurt in the offensive zone the Wings got caught too much in their own zone, and Mrazek had to stop Milan Lucic, Eberle and Darnell Nurse in quick succession to keep the score fro getting out of hand.
The Wings had to kill a penalty to Nielsen with 5 minutes to go in the second period. Helm skated the puck deep into Edmonton's zone to kill off several seconds, and then Larkin did the same. The Wings were outshot, 14-5 in the second period.
