EDMONTON, Alberta - A Detroit Red Wings team destined to miss the playoffs would at least gain some solace knowing its younger players are growing and poised to take another step next season.

But coach Jeff Blashill didn't like what he saw from some of his younger players in Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.

"We had some guys going, we had some guys dig in," Blashill said. "We have young guys that are in big spots here that got to learn to play every single night. It's not good enough to play once every three games or have flashes of success, you got to compete like crazy if you want to win in this league.

"We got young guys who are going to have to learn these lessons. We got to be way better come Tuesday in Toronto."

Blashill didn't single out anybody. It's safe to say he wasn't referring to Anthony Mantha, who scored his 14th goal, in just 48 games, has six points in his past eight games and a team-best plus-14 rating.

Dylan Larkin scored with 35 seconds remaining in regulation to give the team a glimmer of hope in the final minute. It ended his 15-game goal-scoring drought and nine-game pointless streak.

Riley Sheahan has no goals in 61 games and a team-worst minus-20 rating.

Andreas Athanasiou, who's drawn the coach's wrath on multiple occasions this season despite having produced 14 goals and 21 points in 48 games, has taken high-sticking penalties in each of the past two games -- a double-minor on Friday resulted in a power-play goal for Calgary in Detroit's 3-2 overtime loss. On Saturday, he was penalized for high-sticking with 3:58 to play in regulation and his team trailing by two.

"I didn't see the one tonight," Blashill said. "Obviously, you don't want to take penalties. Every situation is a little different. Was he going to pick a guy's stick up and it just hit him? Was he careless with the stick? If he was careless with the stick, that's something we'll address. We watch video with all our young guys on a consistent basis so that's something we'll address."

Despite the criticism, Blashill praised the lines.

"I liked that line with (Darren Helm), (Justin Abdelkader) and Larkin, they're doing a good job," Blashill said. "I thought (Frans) Nielsen's line (with Tomas Tatar and Athanasiou) had some chemistry tonight, too. (Henrik) Zetterberg's line (with Mantha and Gustav Nyquist, back after serving a six-game suspension for high-sticking) has been pretty good consistently here ... and anytime Sheahan, (Luke Glendening and Drew Miller) are there, it's a line that can play against anybody and have confidence in.

"So, I don't mind what the line combinations are. We had some guys that were competing and I'm not saying we had no-shows, but we didn't have guys to the level that you need to have every night in this league to win."

On defense, Xavier Ouellet was on the ice during three Edmonton goals, including Connor McDavid's tally that opened the scoring at 1:41 of the first period. McDavid raced around Ouellet to tuck the puck past Petr Mrazek, who despite allowing four goals kept his team in the game by making 34 saves.

After Mantha tied it on a pass from Zetterberg at 15:04 of the first, Zack Kassian tipped in a shot from Adam Larsson with 22 seconds remaining in the first period to give the Oilers the lead for good.

Jordan Eberle scored at 6:58 of the third to make it 3-1. The Red Wings twice cut the deficit to one in the third, on goals by Darren Helm (10:26 on a breakaway) and Larkin. Patrick Maroon scored what proved to be the game-winner at 14:02.

"We definitely weren't good enough in the first couple of periods," Helm said. "It was good to see that we did battle in the third to try to get the equalizer. It didn't happen, but I thought it was a good effort in the end. We've just got to be a little better off the start."

Said Mantha: "It comes back to playing catch-up hockey, it's hard."