Recap: Larkin's game-winner clips Sabres in overtime, 3-2

Captain Dylan Larkin scored the game-winning goal in overtime, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a come-from-behind, 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Monday afternoon. With the victory, Detroit secured the four-game regular season sweep against the Sabres.
Detroit scored all three of its goals in the third period and overtime after Buffalo jumped out to a 2-0 advantage. Vladislav Namestnikov's shorthanded goal in the 10th minute of the third ended Buffalo goalie Aaron Dell's shutout bid, and Larkin tallied the equalizer at 13:28. The Red Wings controlled the extra session, with Larkin's game-winner coming with just 53 seconds remaining.
Larkin is now tied with Tyler Bertuzzi for the team lead in goals this season with 18. Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic kept Detroit within striking distance to complete the comeback, stopping 26 of the 28 shots he faced.

Detroit improved to 18-17-5 this season and secured its fifth road win, while the Sabres fell to 11-20-7.
NEXT UP: The Red Wings will be idle until Friday, when they host the Dallas Stars at Little Caesars Arena. The Red Wings were scheduled to travel to play the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, but the NHL announced on Jan. 4 that the game would be postponed and rescheduled due to COVID-19-related issues.

SCORING SUMMARY

Detroit 0, Buffalo 1 (9:56, 1st period) Henri Jokiharju fired a shot through traffic that appeared to be deflected by Moritz Seider, and snuck past Nedeljkovic to put the Sabres ahead, 1-0.
Detroit 0, Buffalo 2 (9:21, 3rd period)
Jeff Skinner collected the puck off a rebound, burying his 14th goal of the season and tallying his second point of the game.
Detroit 1, Buffalo 2 (10:21, 3rd period)
After Detroit was charged with a penalty for a failed coach's challenge, the Red Wings answered with their third shorthanded goal of the season after Namestnikov scored to make it a 2-1 game. The play was set up by Seider, with Bertuzzi feeding Namestnikov. With the assist, Seider collected his 25th career point in his 40th game. Among defensemen to debut with the Wings, only current vice president of hockey operations Nicklas Lidstrom (28 games played) and Jeff Sharples (32 games played) required fewer games than Seider to reach the 25-point plateau.

Detroit 2, Buffalo 2 (13:28, 3rd Period)
Coming off the bench on a line change, Larkin received an opportunistic pass in stride from Robby Fabbri behind the goal line and fired a one-timer from between the face-off dots.

Detroit 3, Buffalo 2 (2:07, Overtime)
Buffalo turned the puck over in Detroit's offensive zone, setting up the game-winner. Larkin fed Nick Leddy, who gave the puck back to Larkin for the wrist shot.

Jeff Blashill on the importance of finding ways to win

"Finding ways to win on the road can, for certain, breed confidence. When you're looking at your record, and it's really bad and if you don't win on the road, it's hard to have confidence at that point. Finding a way to win today is a big thing."

Blashill on what lies ahead for the Wings

"I think it was a little bit of a blessing having tomorrow night's game cancelled. It moves into a period in February where it's not super busy, so I think that's a positive, and we can kind of have that balance. You want that balance of not going too long without playing but also having some rest and being able to work in practice."

Larkin on coming away with two points on the road

"It's very important. It's real nice to get this one done in overtime. We did great on face-offs in overtime. We were good on face-offs all night, but we had the puck the whole overtime. I was, unfortunately, watching the last couple of overtimes and it seemed like we were chasing it and we had chances but they just didn't go in. It was nice tonight for that one to go in and to seal it before the shootout."

Larkin on the first two periods against Buffalo

"You got to give them credit. They did their homework. They came out and played a tough, defensive and physical game. Every time we got the puck, they were swarming us."

Roster Update

The Red Wings made a pair of roster announcements before puck drop on Monday. Thomas Greiss was placed in the NHL's COVID protocol, and was replaced by Calvin Pickard, who was called up from the taxi squad. Detroit reassigned Pickard, Taro Hirose and Luke Witkowski to the taxi squad from the Grand Rapids Griffins on Monday evening.