Rookie Postava Holds McDavid in Check as Red Wings Outlast Oilers in Shootout

Plenty of rookie goalies would have wilted after giving up a late lead, but Michal Postava looked like he'd been doing this for years. Making his first NHL start, the 4-3 shootout win over Edmonton closed out a four-game western road trip for Detroit, and it did so against the league's most dangerous offensive group.

The Oilers entered with Connor McDavid, who leads the league in points, and Leon Draisaitl, and Postava was tested early and often. The Red Wings' defense did a solid job of keeping that pair away from clean looks through the first two periods, which is easier said than done against Edmonton's top unit. Still, the scoreboard didn't stay quiet for long.

Where the game turned

Vasily Podzolkin opened the scoring early in the first period. Draisaitl's shot caromed off Podzolkin's leg and slipped over Postava's pads, a bit of puck luck that the rookie couldn't do much about. Detroit responded with a cleaner game through the middle frames, and Viktor Arvidsson tied it on the power play in the second, his fourth man-advantage goal of the year.

The third period was where Edmonton had its opening. Detroit took back-to-back penalties to start the frame, and Isaac Howard cashed in on the second power play chance for his first goal of the season. That's the kind of sequence that can flatten a young team, especially on the road. Instead, Detroit answered quickly. Emmitt Finnie found the backdoor on Tristan Jarry about 30 seconds later to level the score at two, a goal that was all instinct and timing.

Edmonton wasn't done. Ryan Shea uncorked a shot from the blueline and Colton Dach got a stick on it, deflecting it into the Detroit net to put the Oilers back in front with just under five minutes to play in regulation. My read is that's the moment most teams fold. The Red Wings didn't.

The late push

Coach Todd McLellan pulled Postava for an extra attacker, and Detroit spent a long stretch with the puck in the Edmonton zone. Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond kept the puck alive and just out of reach of the Oilers' defenders, the kind of sustained pressure that forces a team to defend in its own end rather than break out.

Raymond's feed into the slot found Dylan Larkin with 1:17 left, and Larkin finished it to tie the game and force overtime. The goal also ended a stretch of eight games without a goal for the Detroit center, a drought he had clearly been eager to break. Timing like that rarely feels accidental, and it's the sort of goal that carries a room into the next period.

Takeaways

Start with Postava. Making an NHL debut start on the road against a team that has been rolling is a tall order, and he was calm the whole way. Through overtime, he was perfect, then stopped McDavid in the shootout to seal the win. Detroit's goaltending has been a question mark for stretches of this season, so a steady performance from a newcomer gives the staff real options to weigh.

Seider's work deserves its own line. He was the Red Wings defenseman most responsible for limiting McDavid's time and space, and he didn't need heroics to do it. Good gap control, smart stick positioning and a willingness to stay with the play through the whole shift is how you blunt a player like that over 60 minutes.

McLellan's postgame comments made the point directly. "Against this team you can't let them get the next one. They get rolling, they get a lot of confidence, so we responded appropriately this night." That's the lesson here. Edmonton's best players don't need many chances to get going, and Detroit made sure the Oilers never got a second run at momentum.

Key stat to watch

Postava has never allowed more than three goals in a professional game in the United States, a span that goes back through his final season with the Grand Rapids Griffins. That's a useful baseline. Monday's four-goal game was an exception to his pattern, and Detroit's staff will want to see how he bounces back from it. Rookies rarely have a clean run through a whole season, so how he handles his next outing matters as much as this one.

What's next

The Red Wings come home to Little Caesars Arena for an Original Six meeting with Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks on October 29, with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m. Eastern. It also marks the first time Detroit faces Patrick Kane on the other side after his three seasons in Hockeytown. Expect plenty of attention on that matchup. The bigger question is whether Detroit can carry the confidence from a comeback win like this one into a home game against a divisional rival that will be fired up to play.