Red Wings win at home to snap streak against Leafs

*Photo from the Globe and Mail*

   It's over Detroit, the streak is over. Robby Fabbri scored the winning goal, Lucas Raymond had a 3 point game, and the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 4-1 victory on Thursday night in Detroit.

   Since beating the Maple Leafs on February 1, 2019, the Red Wings had gone 9 straight games against the Maple Leafs without a win, until Thursday. Raymond had a goal and two assists and Dylan Larkin had two assists, the only multi point scorers for the Red Wings.

   Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde said of the win that "This is a really good win for us, because we've had a lot of games where we played well at 5-on-5 but didn't execute on special teams. Tonight, we played a good game at 5-on-5 and executed on special teams."

   Raymond scored the only goal of the first period, giving the Red Wings a 1-0 lead on his 12th goal of the season, with Larkin getting the lone assist. Fabbri scored the eventual game winner on the power play in the second period, making the lead 2-0. Rasmus Sandin scored for the Maple Leafs later in the period, making it 2-1 after two periods.

   Kicking off the scoring in the 3rd period for the Red Wings was Ben Chiarot, making it 3-1 with just 1:53 to go in regulation, assisted by Raymond and Larkin. With the net empty, 20 seconds on the clock, and the Red Wings on the power play, Moritz Seider added another insurance goal, making the final score 4-1.

   Fabbri gave his thoughts after the game, saying "That's more of a win that's our style. Great on the penalty kill. Husso was great in net. Just defending a lot better, and from that, we've created our offense. As long as we stick to that, we'll have a lot more games like this."

   Getting the start in net for the Red Wings was Ville Husso, picking up a win with a strong start. Husso stopped 32 of the 33 shots the Maple Leafs had, which was good for a .970 save percentage. Husso's record is now 14-8-5 this season.

   Starting for Toronto opposite Husso was Ilya Samsonov, who got the loss to drop to 12-4-1 in 17 starts. Samsonov turned aside 19 out of the 22 shots on goal from the Red Wings, recording a .864 save percentage.

   Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe weighed in on the loss, saying that "I loved the effort from our team tonight. They came at us really hard and got ahead, but we got it back to 2-1 and fought basically to the end. We just didn't create enough offense."

   The Red Wings get back in action with a Saturday night duel against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with Husso projected to get the start. Matt Murray is lined up to start for the Maple Leafs in a Saturday road game against the Boston Bruins.