Red Wings Still Battling for Playoffs with Win in Philly

Apr 3, 2026 - 08:00

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The post Red Wings Still Battling for Playoffs with Win in Philly appeared first on Detroit Hockey Now.

Detroit Red Wings, Lucas Raymond — Lucas Raymond

After falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 two nights ago, the Detroit Red Wings completed their Pennsylvania road trip with a matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers, earning a much needed two point victory on the road with a 4-2 regulation win.

Duct-Tape and Band-Aids

After being called out by their head coach following a lackluster performance against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, the Red Wings responded tonight by doing their best impression of the Broad Street Bullies, throwing out more hits in the first period against Philadelphia than they seemingly have all season in the first period.

Detroit, needing to break from a concerning habit of playing from behind every game, scored the first goal of tonight’s game, with Alex DeBrincat netting his 38th goal of the season, and his 14th on the power play late in the first period. However, the Red Wings first lead was not for long, as the Flyers would get back even 30 seconds into the second period after Tyson Forester shot one over John Gibson’s shoulder to tie things up at one goal apiece.

Lucas Raymond would score late in the second to bring the lead back to Detroit, with Simon Edvinsson battling along the boards to get the puck up ice before passing it off to J.T. Compher, who would redirect to a wide open Raymond for the tiebreaker.

Kane scored his 506th goal and collecting his second point of the night in the third, surpassing Brett Hull on the all time NHL points list. The Flyers, still leading the shot battle, though now behind again on the scoreboard, pulled back within one just under a minute later when Travis Konecny, assisted by former MSU Spartan Porter Martone got the puck in net behind Gibson.

The goal was initially waived off for goaltender interference, as the Flyers did run into Gibson, but Rick Tocchet challenged the call, and officials ruled the puck crossed the line before contact with Gibson was made. DeBrincat, however, would connect with Kane once more just 15 seconds later, flipping the puck over Samuel Ersson’s shoulder from a seemingly impossible angle. The score would hold at 4-2 for the remaining nine and a half minutes of play.

Key Moment(s):

DeBrincat scored the first goal of the game for the Red Wings, breaking a streak of the team having to play from behind and worry about catching up to their opponent. The early lead, along with DeBrincat’s wild goal just seconds after the Flyers pulled themselves back within one, were exactly the kind of plays this team needs to have on a night-to-night basis.

Key Stat:

Kane and DeBrincat combined for three goals tonight, and with that, have the most goals by a pair of players in the NHL with 513. DeBrincat leads the team with 40 goals this season, and has set a career high in goals, while being one short of his career high in points (81) this year.

“They’re tremendous players. They have been doing it for years, and Copper (Andrew Copp) does a lot of the defensive works. But they’re good offensive players… and they’ve been basically carrying us offensively for a while now.”

Takeaways:

There’s still some fight in this Red Wings team yet, and with a homestand on the horizon, the team needs to make a statement as a collective.

“Well going forward, winning and losing is contagious. You lose and you get down… A win can turn that around. We worked real hard tonight.” Said McLellan.

Justin Faulk exited play early in the second period and did not return, which means the Red Wings now will have some more juggling to do with their blue line pairings over the next game or two. Head coach Todd McLellan had no updates post-game.