Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist, Marco Kasper scored, and Dylan Larkin had two assists for the Red Wings (33-18-6), who had lost three straight (0-2-1), including 5-0 to the Avalanche on Saturday in the first game of the home-and-home.
“I thought it was outstanding,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “We had some legs, we were connected, we made some passes, we defended well. Just about everything that could get turned upside down [from Saturday] was, and we got to give the leadership group and the players a lot of credit for responding.
“[Colorado] can gain momentum real quick. The fans can get into the game, and we took them out of it real early and actually got some of the Red Wings fans into it.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves for the Avalanche (36-9-9), who are 2-4-1 in their past seven games.
“We gave up one early, which is sort of a tough start to the game,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “So, tight checking game on both sides, both teams committed to it. I just thought they did a really nice job.
“I give Detroit all the credit there. We weren’t at our best, but I think they competed hard. They defended hard. We made some mistakes here and there, and we had to grind for our chances tonight big time, right? So, there wasn’t a lot of them. I didn’t think either team had a lot of chances, but it was tough sliding out there tonight.”
Kasper scored just 33 seconds into the first period to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. Raymond took the puck down to the left dot on a 2-on-1 before passing to Kasper, who was crashing the net at the far side for a backdoor tap-in.
“Obviously, great play by Lucas finding me back door. I just had to put my stick down,” Kasper said. “Important to get off to a good start, obviously, especially after a couple games where we haven’t been our best, and we were talking a lot about just getting off to a good start, not giving them too much respect, and I think it’s a great play.”