Red Wings Rally Twice, Then Finish Buffalo 3-2 in Overtime at Little Caesars Arena

Buffalo landed the first punches

Buffalo made Detroit chase almost immediately. Trevor Kuntar opened the scoring at 10:48 of the first period with a snap shot, set up by Jake Richard, and the Sabres looked ready to build a road game around that early edge. Instead, Detroit answered before the intermission when Axel Sandin-Pellikka tied it at 16:11, blasting home a slap shot with Anton Johansson and Emmitt Finnie collecting the assists.

The first period reset the score, but not the pattern. Buffalo grabbed the lead again just 33 seconds into the second when Jiri Kulich scored on a wrist shot from Noah Ostlund and Radim Mrtka. That put the Sabres back in front at 2-1 and gave them another chance to dictate terms. They also finished the night with the better faceoff number, winning 53.6 percent of the draws, which helped explain why Detroit kept having to recover instead of simply rolling forward.

What Buffalo could not do was turn that second lead into separation. Detroit finished with a 25-19 shots advantage, and the Sabres’ 24 giveaways kept handing the puck back in a game that was tight enough to punish every extra possession. Buffalo also went 0-for-4 on the power play. In a one-goal overtime loss, that combination stands out more than any single missed moment: too many pucks given away, too few chances turned into something lasting.

Detroit kept finding the equalizer

Detroit’s second reply took longer, but it arrived with the kind of goal that often changes a night from anxious to manageable. At 7:13 of the third, Sheldon Dries tied the game 2-2 with a tip-in, finishing off setup work from Jacob Bryson and Wilmer Skoog. Buffalo had protected one lead and then regained another; Detroit kept coming back anyway.

From there, the Red Wings turned the rest of the evening into a test of whose small advantages would finally matter. Detroit had more shots, 25-19. Detroit was more physical by the count, 19 hits to 15. Most important, Detroit won the special-teams exchange, going 1-for-4 on the power play while Buffalo came up empty on its four chances. Regulation ended level, and Detroit completed the comeback in overtime for the 3-2 result.

The individual contributions fit the shape of the game. Sandin-Pellikka’s first-period slap shot gave Detroit a blue-line answer when Buffalo had struck first. Dries supplied the net-front finish that rescued the third period. Finnie added an assist and a team-high five hits, while Johansson, Bryson and Skoog all appeared on the scoresheet as supporting pieces in the comeback. Daniil Tarasov’s 17 saves on 19 Buffalo shots were not gaudy, but they were enough to keep the game alive long enough for Detroit’s skaters to finish it.

Our take: the cleaner team won the details

Our take: Detroit deserves credit for not letting the game get away from it after falling behind twice, but the stronger case for the Red Wings lies in the quieter numbers. They gave the puck away 16 times, which is hardly pristine, yet it was meaningfully better than Buffalo’s 24. They did not own the faceoff circle, but they made up for it with a modest shot edge and the only power-play goal of the night. In a 3-2 overtime game, that is often the whole story.

Our take on Buffalo is less harsh than the final score might tempt. There was enough here to win: two regulation goals, a faceoff edge, 17 blocked shots, and long stretches where Detroit had to answer rather than attack from ahead. But the fixes almost announce themselves. A team that gets four power-play opportunities cannot leave empty every time and expect much margin later. A team that turns it over 24 times is asking for repeat defensive shifts. Those are not abstract complaints; they are the clearest reasons this game slipped.

For Detroit, the improvement note is simple even in victory: stop building nights that require repeated recoveries. Buffalo led at 10:48 of the first and again 33 seconds into the second. The Red Wings solved it with persistence and enough scoring from different places, but that is a harder path than necessary. Still, there is value in the way they won. One goal came from a defenseman’s shot, another from a forward’s tip, and the last came in overtime to complete the job. That is not a perfect performance. It is, however, a sturdy one.

Scoring moments

1. 1st · 10:48

   Trevor Kuntar Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Jake Richard (1)

2. 1st · 16:11

   Axel Sandin-Pellikka Goal (2) Slap Shot, assists: Anton Johansson (5), Emmitt Finnie (2)

3. 2nd · 0:33

   Jiri Kulich Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Noah Ostlund (1), Radim Mrtka (1)

4. 3rd · 7:13

   Sheldon Dries Goal (1) Tip-In, assists: Jacob Bryson (1), Wilmer Skoog (2)

5. OT · 0:33

   Alex DeBrincat Goal (1) Slap Shot, assists: Lucas Raymond (1), Moritz Seider (1)