Red Wings at a loss for offense after shutout defeat

Detroit — The Philadelphia Flyers came into Joe Louis Arena Sunday as the hottest team in the NHL with eight consecutive victories.

They came away a little hotter, stretching their win streak to nine games.

Brayden Schenn scored at 2 minutes, 44 seconds of overtime, giving the Flyers a 1-0 victory, sending the Red Wings to another discouraging loss.

Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds intercepted Dylan Larkin’s stretch pass — Larkin eyeing Henrik Zetterberg streaking free behind the Flyers’ three players — but Simmonds intercepted the puck and the Flyers worked the puck into a rush going the other way.

“Anything can happen in overtime and we tried to go for it,” Zetterberg said. “We did a lot of good things. The only thing missing is goals.

“We had good structure, good forechecking, good in our own end, goaltending was good. The only thing missing is goals.”

BOX SCORE: Flyers 1, Red Wings 0, overtime

Flyers goalie Anthony Stolarz stopped 28 Red Wings shots to earn the shutout victory.

Goaltender Jimmy Howard, in his second appearance and first start since returning from a groin injury, stopped 35 shots and continually kept the Red Wings in the game.

“I felt good,” Howard said. “Not the cleanest game I’ve had all year but I’ll take it for the first game (start) back. There’s still a couple of things I’ll have to work on and clean up before the next start.”

The Red Wings (13-12-4) are 2-7-3 over their last 12 games at Joe Louis Arena.

“I got back to last year at this time, actually, and we didn’t win enough home games and I went through tons of statistics to see if there was anyting,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We weren’t winning games and we found a way to win on the road. We have to find ways to win these games at home, in close games, we have to win.”

What irritated Blashill much more was the lack of shots. The Red Wings are passing up too many shots for Blashill’s liking.

“We just have to do a better job of going to the net and shooting more pucks,” Blashill said. “We have to decide to shoot the puck and go to the net. We have to change it (the pass mentality).

“Until we do that, we’re not going to score enough.”

The tendency to over-pass and look for the perfect play has been a source of frustration for several years now.

“It’s been ongoing,” Blashill said. “It’s not easy (to change habits) but that’s what teams do that score. We just played one tonight and the other night in Columbus. They don’t overpass, don’t overmake plays. They shoot the puck, go to the net hard, and that’s today’s NHL.”

Each team’s penalty kill was the key throughout the game — the Red Wings killing all four Flyers power plays (Philadlephia came into the game ranked No. 1) on nine shots while the Flyers killed five Red Wings power plays on seven shots.

“The penalty kill was good, unfortunately the power play couldn’t score a goal for them,” Zetterberg said.

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter.com: @tkulfan