Detroit Red Wings complete fall, eliminated from playoff contention

The Detroit Red Wings knew they could not be eliminated from the 2026 playoff race by external forces when the puck dropped on their final home game of the season.

That left internal forces as the Wings hosted the New Jersey Devils, already reduced to a draft lottery team, at Little Caesars Arena in a matinee on Saturday, April 11. All the Wings needed was one point, but even at that, they failed, falling 5-3 as boos echoed from the stands.

The Wings (41-30-9) stayed at 91 points, and with that, their playoff drought reached 10 years, the longest active streak with the Buffalo Sabres qualifying earlier this month.

Emmitt Finnie scored a go-ahead goal seven minutes into the third period when he stuffed a backhand shot into the net, finishing Lucas Raymond's hard work getting the puck to the crease. The Devils leveled that when Cody Glass drilled the puck past John Gibson with 8:42 to play – and then took the lead when Jack Hughes set up Jesper Bratt's second goal of the game, off a rush, with 3:34 to play.

The Wings pulled Gibson with about 2:20 to play for an extra attacker. Dawson Mercer scored with a minute to go.

New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier (13) passes the puck against Detroit Red Wings during the second period at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Saturday, April 11, 2026.

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Detroit Red Wings playoff picture, such as it was

The Wings were helped when the Boston Bruins lost in regulation to the Tampa Bay Lightning to stay at 96 points with two games left. The Bruins have 31 regulation victories and 39 regulation or overtime victories, which are the first two tiebreakers. The Bruins next play Sunday against Columbus Blue Jackets and Tuesday against the Devils.

The Senators, on the other hand, defeated the New York Islanders to reach 96 points, with two games left (Sunday against the Devils, Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs). The Senators need just one point to clinch their playoff spot because they already have the first tiebreaker, regulation victories, in hand.

Even after the first

Jake Allen denied the Wings four times during a Detroit power play early in the first period. The Wings sustained solid pressure back at even strength and were rewarded when Justin Faulk, the defenseman acquired at the trade deadline, scored his fourth goal in 15 games with the Wings. Faulk made it 1-0 when he had a snapped the puck into the net at 9:41 of the first period.

Hughes, a Canton product (who in February scored the goal that won USA the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics) showed off his skill set when he had the puck coming up the right side and fired a shot that snuck past Gibson stick-side, at 10:40. Shots after the first period favored the Wings, 13-8.

Perron and a pick

Forward David Perron, another trade-deadline acquistion, scored his second goal in 14 games with the team, first meaningful one. (His first was in the final minute of the 4-1 loss at the New York Rangers one week earlier.) J.T. Compher sent a short pass to Perron, who one-timed the puck to give the Wings a 2-1 lead at 11:59 of the second period.

That lead lasted about five minutes, until a former first-round pick had a hand in leveling the score. Dennis Cholowski, the Wings' pick at No. 20 in 2016 (lost in the 2018 Seattle Kraken expansion draft after failing to find his footing in Detroit) kept the puck in play and made a pass to defense partner Johnathan Kovacevic. He found Bratt, whose shot from up top through heavy traffic to make it 2-2 at 15:16 Shots after the second period favored the Devils, 21-20.

Next up

The Wings finish on the road: Monday (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Detroit) at the Lightning, who still have positioning at stake, and Wednesday at the Florida Panthers, who are eliminated.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings miss playoffs for 10th straight season with NJ loss