Wings end skid on Raymond’s last-minute goal against Isles

On By Littum

Detroit — Returning home proved to be the tonic the Red Wings needed, at least for one game.

After a disappointing road trip, the Wings looked to this stretch of home games to reset their season, and Thursday proved to be just the medicine as Jonatan Berggren and Lucas Raymond scored late goals to send the Wings to a 2-1 victory.

Raymond scored with 51.1 seconds left in regulation, his third goal of the season, to break a 1-1 tie. Dylan Larkin found Raymond alone near the hashmarks and Raymond beat goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin.

Berggren tied the game 1-1 at 15:14, scoring his third goal after receiving a pass from JT Compher. Berggren flew down the wing and sent a shot over Sorokin’s right shoulder from the hashmarks.

It was a gutsy effort from a Wings team that was again bottled up at some points, had some quality chances, but couldn’t beat Sorokin.

Simon Holmsrom deflected a point shot from Scott Mayfield 5:57 into the first period, Holmstrom’s third goal for the Islanders, to open the scoring. But from there, the Wings allowed very little in the way of quality chances to an Islanders team that struggled offensively.

Goalie Alex Lyon stopped 21 shots to earn the win, including a pair of big saves late in the third period, while Sorokin stopped 29 for the Islanders.

The Wings (8-9-2) won for the second time in seven games (2-4-1) and briefly dispelled the storm clouds surrounding coach Derek Lalonde and their team. The Wings host Boston on Saturday before traveling to Long Island on Monday to face the Islanders.

After Thursday’s morning skate, Lalonde talked about how the narrative would have been very different if the Wings had turned one of the winnable games on the West Coast, most notably a game in Anaheim where the Wings led in the third period.

“It’s honestly unbelievable,” Lalonde said after the morning skate. “We win a good game in Pittsburgh, and we’re (in front) in Anaheim, and if we close that game, we’re talking about winning a road trip. Especially early on, everything gets exaggerated, that’s just the reality. There’s something to the reality of that .500 line I know it sounds crazy but you turn that Anaheim game and you’re 8-8 and we’re not talking about downs.

“But that’s the reality of it. It’s more about playing well (Thursday) and going from there.”

The Wings improved to 4-4-1 at LCA with four of the next five games remaining.

“You have to be (a good home team),” Lalonde said. “We’re sitting here below that (playoff) line, not where we want to be a game under .500 (at home), but we’ll take flirts with .500 or be around .500 on the road. We’ll take it, but you’ve got to win at home Last year was a pretty successful year and we fought in the standings and we took care of home ice.

“It will be a focal point.”

But it wasn’t easy against an Islanders team that is overcoming some key injuries with their tough defensive, checking, grinding style of play.

“Against the Islanders, you’re not going to get an easy offense,” Lalonde said. “You’ve got to work for it. They make a concerted effort to check and they’ve done that and that’s why you see these really low-scoring types of games. They’ve got world-class goalkeeping and there’s definitely a formula and recipe there.”

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