DETROIT — Head coach Derek Lalonde pointed to special teams as the deciding factor in the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.

The Red Wings (1-3-0; 2 points) finished 1-for-5 on the power play, which included 42 seconds at 5-on-3. The Rangers (3-0-1; 7 points) went 3-for-4.

“You’re going to go through these types of stretches throughout the year, but this just happens to be on the front end,” Lalonde said. “We knew it’d be a tough stretch, just a little frustrated in the way some of these have played out. Again, I’ll take our game in New York [on Monday]. We probably get points against most teams in the league the other night and tonight, just our lack of execution on special teams.”

Detroit found itself trailing 1-0 at 8:30 of the first period after Artemi Panarin took a pass from Vincent Trocheck and buried it short side.

Panarin then pushed it to 2-0 at 15:39 of the first period, whipping a shot past Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot on a power play from above the right face-off circle for his second goal of the night.

Just 1:27 into the second period, Moritz Seider ripped the puck top shelf to cut Detroit’s deficit in half 2-1. J.T. Compher and Lucas Raymond had the assists on Seider’s first goal of the season.

“I thought we had a great start to the second,” Lalonde said. “Obviously we put one in, had a couple chances and after that special teams took over.”