Luck Runs Out For Red Wings in Vegas

LAS VEGAS — It was a sure bet that someone’s four-game losing streak was coming to an end Saturday night.

Unfortunately for the Detroit Red Wings, their losing skid became five with a 5-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Jonathan Marchessault had a hat trick for Vegas, including a game-winner with 2:44 remaining in regulation and an empty-netter with 1:07 left.

The result dropped Detroit into the final wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-0 earlier Saturday. The New York Islanders are now two points behind with two games in hand.

The Red Wings never led. They trailed 2-0 until Michael Rasmussen scored in the final minute of the first period. It stayed that way until J.T. Compher and Shayne Gostisphere tied the game twice in the third period.

Later in the game, Rasmussen left the contest with an undisclosed injury. Detroit coach Derek Lalonde had no update after the game.

It was the third loss in four days for the Red Wings, who look to salvage one game from the road  trip with a date at Buffalo on Tuesday.

Red Wings Have Better Effort

Despite the loss, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde felt better about is team’s effort that in a loss at Arizona on Friday.

“We outshot them 13-5 in third period,” Lalonde said afterward. “It’s just one of those stretches where we literally have to open nets on the same play under five minutes. And they gave a goal off a blocked-shot ping-pong back-door  tap-in, so it is what it is, like I said, a really good effort. I think if we can sustain an effort like that, we’ll be we’ll be successful more times than not, can’t get frustrated.”

Forward David Perron preached patience and saw a better effort from the Wings.

“With the performance we put up (Friday), we wanted to come out and definitely fight for each other out there,” he said. “I thought we did that and we stayed in the game all night.”

Jonatan Berggren joined the Red Wings from Grand Rapids for the first time since December. He replaced Klim Kostin, who had been traded to San Jose earlier in the day. Berggren was -2 with no points in the game.

James Reimer had 31 saves on 35 shots. The. Red Wings were outshot 36-26.