Detroit Red Wings muster just 11 shots, but still beat Islanders, 1-0, thanks to Alex Lyon

ELMONT, N.Y. — Alex Lyon delivered another outstanding performance for the Detroit Red Wings, again on the road.

On a Tuesday night where the ice at UBS Arena seemed to tilt from period to period towards Detroit’s net, Lyon kept the New York Islanders frustrated. Lyon stole the game, making 29 saves in a 1-0 victory.

Patrick Kane scored his first goal of the season – on the Wings’ first shot of the game. They registered just 11 shots all game.

While Ilya Sorokin didn’t see many pucks, Lyon was busy denying the likes of Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat. One particularly nice save on Barzal came in the second period, when the skilled winger got the puck down low, but Lyon came through with a glove save.

The Islanders pulled Sorokin with about three minutes to play, but put him back in within a minute.

Shots after two periods favored the Islanders, 22-8.

Lyon gets a workout

Lyon, fresh off a 37-save outing in Nashville on Saturday, started for the second straight game. He was busy: The Islanders owned Detroit’s zone the first several minutes, managing to cycle the puck with seeming ease. In quick succession, Brock Nelson, Max Tsyplakov and Noah Dobson all directed shots on Detroit’s net. It made for acrobatic, head-on-a-swivel stretch for Lyon. Later in the period, Mike Reilly held onto the puck as he drove behind the net to set up Nelson for another scoring opportunity. Lyon made eight saves in the first period, but the Islanders also racked up missed shots.

Tarasenko earns assist

Vladimir Tarasenko, brought in during free agency to add scoring, picked up his first assist thanks to hustling up the left flank and holding off a defender, still able to swing a pass out front that Kane turned into a goal, at 8:54 of the first period. It was the Wings’ first shot of the period; they didn’t get a second one until there was about a minute and a half left, when Larkin fired a shot off a draw that Sorokin turned aside.

Few and far between

The Wings were credited with two shots on net in the first period; by the halfway point of the game, they were at six. One of those was courtesy of Jonatan Berggren, who was the only Wing to have a scoring opportunity during a power play early in the second period. Lyon came through with saves on Horvat and Anders Lee while Ben Chiarot was off for hooking midway through the same period. The Wings faced a third penalty kill with 5:29 to play in regulation.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of the Red Wings,” was released October 2024. Her books, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.