CHICAGO – Lucas Raymond had plenty of energy in the second half of his first set of consecutive NHL games.
It's good to be 19.
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Raymond had three goals and an assist, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the winless Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 on Sunday night.
Tyler Bertuzzi added a goal and two assists as Detroit bounced back nicely after a 6-1 loss at Montreal on Saturday night. Carter Rowney and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 32 saves.
Raymond, the No. 4 overall pick in last year's draft, recorded his first career hat trick in his sixth NHL game. It was the first time he played on back-to-back nights with Detroit.
“I've only played six games in the NHL, so playing (on) a lot of adrenaline and everything's new to me,” he said. “Just trying to go out there every night and have fun and help the team win.”
Raymond became the second teenager in franchise history to record a hat trick, joining Hall of Famer and current Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman. He became the third teenager to record at least four points in a game for the Red Wings, joining Yzerman and Hall of Famer Gordie Howe.
“It's tough to take in,” Raymond said. “I mean those are two of the greatest players who ever played in franchise history.”
Short-handed Chicago dropped to 0-5-1 in a nightmarish start for a team with playoff aspirations. It has yet to lead this season; at 360 minutes, 57 seconds, it's the NHL's longest such streak to open a campaign since at least the 1979-80 season, according to Sportradar.
“We haven't found a way to generate any offense and get on the scoresheet, and when things go bad for us, it just seems to kind of snowball,” captain Jonathan Toews. “But, again, we only have ourselves to blame for that. So it's up to us to find solutions and find a way out of it.”
The Blackhawks played without Patrick Kane, Riley Stillman and Jujhar Khaira because of the league's COVID-19 protocol. Assistant coach Marc Crawford also was absent because of the protocol.
The crowd of 19,042 stopped the Blackhawks' sellout streak at 535 games. There were periodic boos the whole night, broken up by an occasional “Let's go Red Wings!” chant coming from a vocal group of fans in the upper deck.
“I believe we have the makings of a good group,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We haven't put it together yet, so we need to. I feel like we can play a brand of hockey and be a team that people in Chicago are proud of, but we got to deliver.”
Dominik Kubalik, Tyler Johnson and Henrik Borgstrom scored for Chicago. Toews had two assists for his first points since missing all of last season with what he described as chronic immune response syndrome.
The Blackhawks had a third-period goal waved off because of goaltender interference, and Alex DeBrincat was robbed on an outstanding stick save by a diving Nedeljkovic.
Rowney put Detroit ahead to stay when he banked the puck in off the left skate of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury 4:22 into the second — the first of four goals in the period for the Red Wings.
Namestnikov made it 3-1 when he jumped on a loose puck in front and poked it through Fleury's legs at 7:33. Bertuzzi was credited with his sixth goal when Blackhawks forward Reese Johnson had one go in off his left skate at 9:19.
After Kubalik converted a power-play slap shot for Chicago, Raymond knocked home a rebound to make it 5-2 with 59.2 seconds left in the second.
“He's got an edge to him, for sure. He's certainly not shy about going to the net,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said.
Raymond tacked on a power-play goal 7:00 minutes into the third. He began the day with one goal and two assists in five games.
THE END
Danny Wirtz, the chief executive officer for the Blackhawks, marked the end of the sellout streak with a statement thanking the fans.
“We’re actively building toward more competitive play on the ice as well as an experience that invites fans back following the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. "But it’s also important to note that we’ve set a number of goals to welcome new and more diverse audiences into Blackhawks hockey moving forward, and greater accessibility to tickets is a big part of that.
"This is a great opportunity to reassure fans both new and old that there is absolutely a seat here for them.”
UP NEXT
Red Wings: Visit the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Blackhawks: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
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Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap
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