Red Wings stomp Blues as DeBrincat has 3 point game

*Photo from Yahoo News*

   The fuel was topped off in this game. Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist, and the Detroit Red Wings rolled over the St. Louis Blues with a 6-1 victory on Saturday afternoon in Detroit.

   The Red Wings won their 4th straight game and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 by dispatching the Blues, improving to 31-20-6. Lucas Raymond chipped in two assists while Michael Rasmussen had a goal and an assist. Kane's multi point game extended his point streak to 7 games.

   Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde said of the win streak that "We're in a stretch where we are playing some really good hockey, and we need to take advantage of it. If we want to get over that line at the end of the season, we're going to need every last point we can get."

   Kane started the scoring just 33 seconds into the game, giving the Red Wings a 1-0 lead on his 11th goal of the season. Rasmussen made the lead 2-0 on his 12th goal of the season 4:21 into the game. Robby Fabbri scored unassisted 1:03 after Rasmussen's goal to make it 3-0 Red Wings. DeBrincat scored a power play goal with 58 seconds left in the period to make it a 4-0 game.

   DeBrincat said of the 4 goal first period that "We knew we hadn't been getting the starts we needed. That was a point of emphasis tonight, and we came out with three quick goals. After that, we just wanted to keep it going. We've had a couple of games where we had big leads and given them up, so it's good to stay focused in this game and hold them to one."

   Zachary Bolduc scored for the Blues 12:28 into the second period, making it 4-1 on his first NHL goal. At the 16:56 mark of the second, JT Compher found the back of the net for Detroit, assisted by Raymond and Rasmussen. DeBrincat scored his second goal of the game to make it 6-1 with the lone assist going to Kane.

   Starting in net for the Red Wings was Alex Lyon, who played well to improve his record to 17-8-2 with a win. Lyon stopped all but one of the 23 shots he faced from the Blues offense, giving him a stellar .957 save percentage.

   It was Jordan Binnington who started for the Blues, falling to a 20-16-2 record in 39 starts with the loss. Binnington allowed 4 goals on 14 shots before he was pulled after the first period. Joel Hofer handled the next two periods and made 18 saves on 20 shots.

   St. Louis interim head coach Drew Bannister said of the loss that "I think we had 22 or 24 turnovers in the first period. That's normally how many we have in a game. Binner was under siege out there. This had nothing to do with him. He didn't have a chance."

   The Red Wings finish the second end of a back to back on Sunday against Kane's old team in the Chicago Blackhawks, with James Reimer to get the start in goal. Binnington is the Blues projected starter on Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets.