John Gibson, Red Wings return favor, shut out Avalanche

Marco Kasper scored 33 seconds into the game, John Gibson made it stand, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-0 in Denver on Monday night.

Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist and Dylan Larkin added two assists for Detroit, which bounced back from a 5-0 home loss to Colorado on Saturday to earn a split of the season series.

Gibson made 22 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and 28th of his career for the Red Wings. It was Detroit's second win in its last 16 games against the Avalanche, the previous coming Feb. 22, 2024, in overtime.

Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 22 shots two days after his third shutout of the season for Colorado, which was held without a goal for the first time this season.

Defenseman Devon Toews returned to the Avalanche lineup after missing 13 games with an upper-body injury. Martin Necas missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury for Colorado.

It appeared it would be a high-scoring game when the Red Wings struck in the first minute. Colorado pressed in the offensive zone on its first shift of the night, but the puck bounced out to Raymond. He skated down the right side of the ice, brought the puck into the Avalanche zone and sent a pass to Kasper to the left of the crease.

Kasper redirected it by Blackwood to give Detroit the lead.

The Red Wings limited Colorado's chances from there. The Avalanche had eight shots on goal in the first period but managed to put just four on Gibson in the second.

Colorado stepped up the pressure early in the third and nearly scored on the power play but Gibson made a save on Nathan MacKinnon's snap shot in the slot.

Gibson later made a save on Parker Kelly's point-blank shot with 12:24 left. Blackwood came off for an extra skater with 3:08 remaining and Raymond scored into the empty net with 30.7 seconds left.

--Field Level Media