Hellberg, Red Wings fail to protect two-goal lead, lose to Coyotes in shootout

Tempe, Ariz. − The Red Wings needed a victory Tuesday and the Arizona Coyotes did not oblige.

Playing in the junior-sized rink Mullett Arena, which had tons of Wings fans and still had many seats empty, the Wings dropped a 4-3 decision in a shootout.

Arizona won the shootout 2-0, with Nick Schmaltz and Nick Bjugstad scoring.

"It's tough, it takes a second to soak it in," defenseman Jake Walman said. "We have to close those games out."

The Wings (18-17-8) are winless in their last three games and have won twice in the last eight games.

"It stings," said coach Derek Lalonde, of seeing his team lose a 3-1 third-period lead. "The effort was there. We got tired in the third, and we probably could have managed the 3-1 lead a little bit better. But (with) our effort, three goals on the road, it should be enough to win."

BOX SCORE: Coyotes 4, Red Wings 3 (SO)

Goaltender Magnus Hellberg, getting the start for the resting Ville Husso, stopped 20 shots. Helbergg made a big glove slove on Clayton Keller in the slot in overtime, extending the game to a shootout, and also had timely saves in with the Coyotes buzzing around him for the final minute of regulation time.

But the two third-period goals allowed were ones Hellberg wanted back.

"Goals two and three can't go in on an NHL goalie, he'd be the first to admit that," Lalonde said. "With that said, when we were out of gas, he made some saves at the end of the third that got us a point and he was excellent in overtime.

"It's a little frustrating. It felt like three goals probably should have been enough (to win)."

Hellberg was frustrated he couldn't clinch the victory in the third for his teammates.

"We played real good for us to get the win," Hellberg said. "I'm real disappointed they came back and won. As I feel now, it was two tough goals. I have to watch the video and see what I can do better, but when we have the lead 3-1 in the third period, you want to keep them out and win in regulation.

"I'm real disappointed. I wanted to help the team get two points."

The Wings outshot Arizona, 40-24.

More:Wings notes: Slow starts derail progress; monitoring Husso's workload

The Coyotes scored two goals apart 1:10 apart (Travis Boyd, Dylan Guenther) tying the game 3-3 in the third period. This, after the Wings had scored twice, Pius Suter and David Perron, only 58 seconds apart to briefly take a 3-1 lead early in the period.

Suter converted a nice play from Robby Fabbri along the boards, coming down on a 2-on-1 rush and beating Connor Ingram for his sixth goal.

Perron capped a strong shift from the Andrew Copp line, scoring his 14th goal, beating Ingram on a rebound to make it 3-1.

But the Coyotes answered right back.

Boyd scored his fifth at 6:43, with a shot from the slot that eluded Hellberg. Then Guenther scored his fifth, at 7:53, putting back a rebound into a yawning net.

"Wrist shots are going in the net, or hitting the goal post and ending up in our net, but we could have done a better job to not put the puck in those areas," Lalonde said.

Dylan Larkin (power play) and Arizona's Nick Bjugstad traded second-period goals.

Larkin scored his 15th, deflecting Moritz Seider's shot from the top of the slot, at 8:34.

But Bjugstad answered quickly, beating Hellberg from a tight angle for Bjugstad's 11th goal, at 11:09.

The Wings conclude the three-game road trip Thursday in Vegas (10 p.m./BSD/97.1). A victory would help ease the disappointment of losing a point in the standings in this game.

"This was a tough one," Larkin said. "We came back, we're up, we should have won that game 5-1. We outplayed them. Just mental errors and lapses that went into the back of our net."

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tkulfan