DETROIT — There was no giving up late barrages of goals this time for the Red Wings.
They played solid defense all evening and in overtime, Jordan Oesterle scored his first goal as a Red Wing, giving the Wings a 2-1 victory over Anaheim at Little Caesars Arena.
Oesterle gathered a puck off a a faceoff victory by Dylan Larkin, and snapped a shot from the slot that flew past Ducks goaltender John Gibson at 2 minutes, 11 seconds of overtime.
The Wings limited Anaheim to 15 shots in the game. They outshot Anaheim 28-15 and allowed few quality scoring chances.
The Wings moved back to .500 with the victory (20-20-6).
The Wings appeared to break the tie at 16:11 of the third period on an apparent Filip Hronek goal.
But video determined Hronek kicked the puck in while skating through the slot over Gibson, and the goal was taken off the board.
Larkin scored his 23rd goal for the Wings to open the scoring in the first period, while Anaheim's Rickard Rakell tied it 1-1 in the second period with his 10th goal.
Larkin's goal was another of his jaw-dropping ones in recent games.
Filip Zadina got the puck in the middle of the ice and found Larkin skating with speed down the wing.
Larkin sped around defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, drove to the net, and backhanded a shot bar down past Gibson at 19:23.
The goal capped an opening 20 minutes that had a lot of skating, some physical play, but lacked many outstanding scoring opportunities.
Gibson denied Tyler Bertuzzi on a wraparound and Sam Gagner in close, as he was the busier of the two goalies in the first period.
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic's best stop early was turning aside Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler (Farmington Hills) on a one-timer in the low circle.
But shortly after, Rakell tied it with his 10th goal.
Oesterle sent an errant pass into the neutral zone that was intercepted by Adam Henrique. The Ducks started the rush the other way, and Henrique found Rakell, who whipped a shot past Nedeljkovic at 2:29 of the second period.
The Wings had a golden opportunity to break the tie late in the period when Joe Veleno was alone on the side of the crease, but failed to slam a post-to-post pass from Bertuzzi sending the puck wide.
The Ducks (23-16-9) ended a five-game road trip 3-0-2 and continued what's been an impressive season for the Ducks, who many analysts expected to wallow in the bottom of the standings, but instead are solidly in a playoff berth.
“Certainly they’ve had some young guys step in and play excellent,” coach Jeff Blashill said after Monday's morning skate. “We’ve obviously had some guys step in and play good for us. (Ryan) Getzlaf’s still a really good player. (Troy) Terry's been outstanding (25 goals). The year he is putting up has been incredible. I’ve always felt that Cam Fowler was one of the most underrated defensemen in the league."
The Wings were intent on improving their defensive performance Monday after a couple of ragged outings — with a stellar effort Friday in Pittsburgh sandwiched in between — which left them searching for some consistency in that regard.
Allowing Toronto five goals in the final 10 minutes of Saturday's loss left a mark from a confidence standpoint, but was a valuable learning experience.
"It’s definitely a learning thing,” Blashill said. “I would say this, that we don’t want to be a team that plays close with good teams. We have to find ways to keep getting better here. We have a lot of good teams coming up in the second half of the schedule.
“If we want to be a team that wins these games, that doesn't play close (and loses), we have to be way better defensively."
The Wings lost defenseman Nick Leddy to an upper body injury after the second period. Leddy didn't return to the game, and the Wings had no further update for his availability.
