In the first period, it was a lot of Swedish.
Toronto's William Nylander started the whole goal feast with his 20th goal of the season and rookie success Lucas Raymond reduced to 2-1 by putting in a return on Marc Staal's shot.
In the first period break, the score was 3-1 to visiting Toronto.
The second period was largely Toronto star Mitch Marners.
He scored three goals in nine minutes in the beginning and thus brought his team up in a 6-1 lead.
Already there he had set a personal record, but he would also score the very last goal of the match.
- I'm not going to lie, it was pretty cool.
I tried to stay calm when the third went in, but it was a cool moment, he says to nhl.com.
Before the final period, the score was 7-2 to Toronto, but that was when it started to rattle in the nets for real.
Just over five minutes into the period, Detroit had scored four goals and ensured that only one goal separated the teams.
They still did not come any closer than that, even though Raymond did his second for the evening.
Marner scored the last of the evening, the seventeenth of the match, and the eighth goal of the period with four minutes left to play.
- I do not know how to describe this in words.
I've never played a match like this before, says Toronto superstar Auston Matthews.
- It was crazy to score all those goals and suddenly be back in the match after we had been bad for two periods, Staal says.
Raymond tops the points league for rookies with 42 points, two points ahead of Toronto's Michael Bunting who scored a full five points in the match.
The last time 17 goals or more were scored in an NHL game was on October 27, 2011 when the Winnipeg Jets beat the Philadelphia Flyers 9-8.
The record is from 1920 when the Montreal Canadiens defeated Toronto St.
Patricks by 14-7.