The Red Wings appear serious about making a run toward a playoff spot.
Pius Suter scored in the fifth round of the shootout Wednesday, giving the Wings a 5-4 shootout victory in Edmonton.
The Wings won the shootout 2-1 with Suter and David Perron scoring. Goaltender Ville Husso only allowed a Connor McDavid goal in the shootout.
The victory was the fourth consecutive for the Wings – the first time they’ve won that many in a row since November – and second straight win to open this five-game road trip.
The Wings (24-20-8) have now won seven of their last 10 games and have moved to within four points of Washington for the last Eastern Conference wild-card spot. The Wings have also played three less games than Washington, and four less than the New York Islanders and Florida, two of the teams ahead of the Wings.
So the Wings find themselves in a pretty good spot as they head to Calgary on Thursday (9 p.m./BSD/97.1).
BOX SCORE: Red Wings 5, Oilers 4 (OT)
Goals from Leon Draisaitl (power play) and Derek Ryan 2:41 apart early in the third erased a 4-2 Wings’ lead.
But the Wings killed a late Edmonton (30-19-5) power play, and Husso (41 saves) made timely saves to earn the Wings two points.
Dylan Larkin (power play), Moritz Seider, Robby Fabbri (power play) and Olli Maatta had the Wings’ goals, as the Wings had a big edge on special teams.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two Oilers goals with McDavid, the NHL’s leading scorer, setting up both goals. Goaltender Jack Campbell (Port Huron) stopped 19 shots.
Similar to recent games, the Wings had another good start.
Larkin scored his 21st goal with a power-play goal at 4:17 of the first period, then Seider extended it to 2-0 at 17:19 with his fourth goal. Andrew Copp won the draw and got the puck to Seider, who drifted down from the point and backhanded a puck toward Campbell that glanced off defenseman Philip Broberg and past Campbell.
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Nugent-Hopkins cut the lead to 2-1 at 1:26, but Fabbri regained the two-goal lead with his sixth goal, capping a nice passing play at 9:06 on the power play.
Nugent-Hopkins scored his 26th at 11:32, off a feed from McDavid through the slot, cutting the Wings lead to 3-2.
But Maatta pushed the lead back to two goals, scoring his fifth, slapping a shot after Larkin won the draw and got the puck back to Maatta.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan