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Red Wings Notebook: Avalanche Give Lesson on How Winning Teams Close Out Games

Detroit castoff playing well in Colorado

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J.T. Compher, Detroit red wings
JT Compher thinks the Red Wings can learn a lot from the way the Colorado Avalanche protect a lead.

Losing by one goal for the fifth straight game, the Detroit Red Wings were schooled by the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Carrying a 2-1 lead into the third period, it was easy to decipher why Colorado is now 10-0 this season when leading after two periods. Instead of sitting back and sitting on their one-goal advantage, from the drop of the puck to start the final period of regulation, the Avs got after the Red Wings.

They were playing aggressively, attacking Detroit. It was a formula that wound up pinning the Wings in their own zone, wearing them down and winning shift after shift in closing out their 2-1 victory.

“They just won some shifts and they got some zone time,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said.

Detroit’s first shot on goal in the third period was by Alex DeBrincat at the 6:30 mark. The Wings wouldn’t register another until there was 2:31 left in the frame and they’d pulled goalie Ville Husso for an extra attacker.

“I think it’s something that we can learn from, what they did in the third,” Red Wings center JT Compher said. “It’s a close game, they’re only up a goal.

“They stayed aggressive on us and we didn’t execute well enough to get out of our zone quickly, and then they kind of get the momentum of rolling lines over on us, and we weren’t able to flip that fast enough.”

Red Wings Castoff Performing Well For Avs

Less than two years ago, center Ivan Ivan was a Red Wings hopeful. He was a free-agent invite to the club’s rookie tournament in Traverse City. Ivan left without a contract. Eventually landing with the Avalanche, he’s finding a home and a role in Colorado as a bottom-six forward.

Ivan is showing 5-3-8 totals through 28 games. Were he in the Detroit lineup, he would be in a tie for fourth on the club in goals.

In fact he has two more goals that Compher, the former Avs center. Last summer, Compher was landing a five-year, $25.5-million contract from the Wings. He’s now gone 18 games without a goal.

It was just seven games ago on Nov. 25 that Ivan was enjoying a career-high two-goal performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Ice Chips

The good news? The Red Wings have held opponents to two goals or less in six of the past nine games. The bad news? They’ve been held to two goals or less in six of the last nine games. Overall, Detroit is 3-5-2 in that nine-game span . . . Detroit forward Lucas Raymond, scoring his 10th goal of the season on Saturday, now has 12 points in the past 10 games.

 

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