Jakub Vrana scores four as Red Wings stun Stars 7-3

DETROIT – Maybe the Detroit Red Wings won’t miss Anthony Mantha’s offense that much.

Jakub Vrana, Mantha’s replacement, scored four goals Thursday to lift the Red Wings to a 7-3 victory over the Dallas Stars at Little Caesars Arena.

It was Vrana’s first career four-goal game, his second hat trick. He has five goals in four games since the April 12 trade that brought him and Richard Panik – who scored his first goal as a Red Wing on Thursday – to Detroit, along with first- and second-round picks, for Mantha.

Vrana displayed the skating ability and wicked shot that prompted Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman to part with Mantha less than six months after signing him to a four-year contract.

The Red Wings have equaled last season’s win total and surpassed their points output from 2019-20, doing it in 22 fewer games. The Red Wings are 17-25-7 (41 points). They finished 17-49-5 last season.

Vrana completed the hat trick by scoring on a breakaway at 10:09 of the third period, putting his team ahead 5-2.

The Stars weren’t finished, however, as Denis Gurianov scored on the power play with 6:31.

Vrana then backhanded in a rebound with 4:12 remaining to give the Red Wings a 6-3 lead. It was his 16th of the season.

Mantha, oddly enough, was the last Red Wing to score four in a game, doing it in last season’s home-opener — also against the Stars.

Luke Glendening and Sam Gagner (empty net) also scored for Detroit, which got two assists each from Filip Zadina and Danny DeKeyser. Thomas Greiss made 43 saves to improve to 4-0-2 in his past six starts.

It was a season-high goal total for the Red Wings, who played without captain Dylan Larkin. He missed this game and might sit out more due to a upper-body injury.

The Red Wings, in a reversal of Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at Dallas, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period.

Vrana whipped in a hard wrist shot at 9:50 from a pass by Zadina, after Andrej Sekera put the puck right onto Zadina’s stick in the neutral zone, leading to a quick counterattack.

Glendening scored his third goal in three games, his sixth of the season, at 15:35, directing Marc Staal’s shot from the point. Glendening’s line, with Adam Erne and Darren Helm, did a good job of grinding down low, creating a turnover. Helm provided a screen on the shot.

Panik showed good hustle and presence of mind to score with 10.3 seconds to play in the period. He flung the puck toward the net from the point and then rushed to the net. The puck squirted through Khudobin’s pads and laid in the crease, as the goaltender lost sight of it. Panik swooped in and swatted it home for his first point in five games as a Red Wing.

Jake Oettinger replaced Khudobin at the start of the second period and the Stars made a strong push to cut Detroit’s lead to 4-2 after 40 minutes.

Radek Faksa scored on the power play at 2:07 and Joe Pavelski scored eight seconds after a power play expired, at 12:46.

In between, Vrana notched his second of the game at 6:50 by redirecting a shot from DeKeyser.

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