Jets cool off Wings, Raymond scores only goal in 4-1 loss: 'Give credit to Hellebuyck'

Detroit — The Red Wings are suddenly working on a losing streak.

After all the deserved hoopla over a five-game win streak, the Wings lost for a second consecutive game Thursday, losing 4-1 to Winnipeg.

The Jets got goals from Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor (Shelby Township) 1 minute, 2 seconds apart late in the first period, and Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce) stopped 35 shots to slow the Wings.

The clincher for the Jets came from former Michigan State forward Mason Appleton, who scored his third goal at 10 minutes, 26 seconds of the third period, restoring a Jets' two-goal lead. Nino Niederreiter added an empty net goal at 18:58.

Lucas Raymond scored his second goal, early in the second period, cutting the lead to 2-1.

But the Wings' power play, which had been sizzling to begin the season, went without a goal in two attempts.

BOX SCORE: Jets 4, Red Wings 1

And when the Wings (5-2-1) did have a good offensive chance, Hellebuyck, the annual Vezina Trophy (best goaltender) candidate, stood tall as he does against the rest of the NHL as well.

Goaltender James Reimer made 24 saves for the Wings, who now head out on a difficult two-game road trip to Boston (Saturday) and the New York Islanders (Monday).

Here are some talking points after this game:

More traffic needed

Hellebucyk is one of the best goalies in the NHL, but to an extent, the Wings made it too easy for him.

Raymond's goal was the type of goal they were looking for, crashing the net, getting down low, and creating traffic. But there wasn't nearly enough of that overall in this game from the Wings.

"A little more traffic," said coach Derek Lalonde, of what is needed. "That's the one knock. As good as he was, we just didn't do enough to make it harder on him. Even our one goal for, give Razor credit, he was committed going to the net and finished off with a rebound.

Shayne Gostisbehere impressing, fueling Red Wings at both ends of ice

"Any good goalie, you need to crowd him and take away space. We would have liked a little more volume (of shots), some scramble."

David Perron sees it as something the Wings' lines, after the top line of Raymond, Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat, can do on a more consistent basis.

"(The Larkin line) can create all kind of chances in any ways, rush, cycle, all that stuff," Perron said. "The other lines, we can do a better job of maybe working behind the net and kind of create momentum that way. You look at them (the Jets), the (Adam) Lowrey line, they did that to us all night and it wasn't easy."

Penalty trouble

The Wings carried over their undisciplined play from last game into the first period, with three penalties.

Though the Jets didn't score on the power play, they created momentum and tired the Wings, who trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes.

Lalonde wasn't looking for that kind of start.

"No chance," Lalonde said. "Again, a little unlucky we were down two (goals), as they get a bounce and it ends up on the wrong stick with Connor and back of the net. But it's not so much they scored on the power play, but you spend six minutes (killing penalties) and you get no rhythm on your team. Your players are gassed, and we gave ourselves no chance with the six minutes in penalties in the first.

"That was a big part of us not getting any pushback in that period."

Chance for redemption

The Wings went into Ottawa last weekend and made an impressive statement with a convincing win over the Senators, a trendy pick to make the playoffs.

Now here's another chance Saturday in Boston, for the Wings to make a statement against a powerful Atlantic Division rival and with the Wings winless in two games.

"You have to find ways to not get into extended streaks like that," Lalonde said. "I'm not alarmed with our 0-1-1 in the last two games, in that we did some pretty good things. It's just the puck didn't go in for us. The looks were there, it just didn't go in and give credit to Hellebuyck."

Perron also sees it as a valuable opportunity for the Wings.

"It's an exciting thing, we have to find a way through some of these games," Perron said. "It's not going to be perfect all the time. That's why I'm excited heading into the next game and see how we react. We felt maybe we deserved more against Seattle, and I don't know if we did enough of that tonight (against Winnipeg) to feel like that. It's going to be a good test to see how we react. It's not going to be smooth sailing all the time."

Heartbroken for Lewiston

Perron spent the 2006-07 junior season in Lewiston, Maine and was heartbroken to hear Tuesday night about the shootings in the city.

"That was tough to read as it started happening last night," Perron said. "I sent a bunch of texts to a bunch of people I knew in the area. I had a great year playing there and obviously my heart goes out to those people. I just saw some people related to the team were involved in it. My billets' son was on the same street (where) it happened. He's a guy I love a lot and for the most part, the people I talked to were safe.

"But it's devastating to read asthe whole thing is happening."

Not perfect all the time

The Wings have been one of the more impressive teams in the NHL during this fast start. But Lalonde admitted the other day it's important to be realistic.

"We're not going to play at an (.786) winning percentage," said Lalonde earlier in the week. "We're on pace to break the NHL record for points. We're realistic with that. Same with the power play (over 40 percent entering the game). Some things are going to regress. Some things aren’t sustainable.

"But I do think habits are. Do you expect to go 5-1 (5-1-1), especially with the type of competition we’ve played? No. But we have done a lot of quality things. Not perfect by any means, but we've been rewarded. Fortunately, right now we've been getting outcomes."

Wings milestones

Larkin and Moritz Seider assisted on Raymond's second-period goal. Seider, with the assist, became the third-fastest defenseman to reach the 100-point mark in his career behind Reed Larson and Nicklas Lidstrom.

Larkin, with his assist, extended his season-opening point streak to eight games.

"He (Larkin) had looks," Lalonde said. "He could have had a three- or four-point night. He was playing with pace, he had some good things on the rush, it just didn't go in for him tonight."

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @tkulfan