DETROIT — Adam Fox recorded four points Thursday night, the second time in his NHL career he has had at least that many. That included the go-ahead goal, which unleashed an offensive explosion in the third period that ultimately secured the Rangers’ 8-2 victory over the Red Wings.

Taking a pass off the wall while trailing the play, the 24-year-old defenseman unloaded a missile shot from the top of the right faceoff circle to put the Rangers up 3-2 at 6:02 of the third. Fox also had a hand in each of the Rangers’ previous two goals, assisting on Mika Zibanejad’s goal in the first period and on Chris Kreider’s power-play score in the second.

“Hopefully that’s our jump-start to get that swagger back that we have,” Fox told The Post after the win. “Obviously, it’s one period and we don’t want to sit on it. We’re happy with it, obviously, but we want to string together a few here so it’s definitely something to build on.”

It was Fox’s most dominant performance of the season, eclipsing his three-assist night against the Ducks on Oct. 17. Aside from an overzealous pinch that allowed the Red Wings to jump on an odd-man rush before center Joe Veleno tied the score at 1-1 late in the first period, Fox was strong on both sides of the puck.

In logging the second most ice time behind Jacob Trouba, Fox later added a third assist and had three blocked shots.

The Rangers were back at full strength as previously injured defenseman Ryan Lindgren and wing Julien Gauthier returned to the lineup.

“It’s brutal,” Lindgren said of having to sit out the previous two games with an undisclosed upper-body injury, which he sustained on a hit from the Bruins’ David Pastrnak on Nov. 3. “You never want to be out, you never want to be watching the game on TV. It stinks. You want to be healthy when you’re playing. It was nothing too crazy and I only had to sit out two games, but definitely feels good to be back.”

With a roster of 23, which will likely soon fall back to 22 via a demotion to AHL Hartford for cap purposes now that everybody is healthy, Gallant had some decisions to make. With Lindgren back, Gallant opted to sit Zac Jones and stay with Libor Hajek. That marked the fourth time Jones has been scratched this season, while Hajek skated in his sixth game and scored his first goal of the season.

Gauthier, who was sidelined against the Islanders on Tuesday with an upper-body injury, was also reinserted into the lineup after a solid stretch of six games before he got hurt. He skated on the fourth line with Barclay Goodrow and Sammy Blais.

As a result, usual fourth-line center Ryan Carpenter was edged out and served as a healthy scratch for the first time this season. The one previous game Carpenter missed was Oct. 17 after he sustained a brutal skate cut on and near his ear during the third game of the season.

Veteran Ryan Reaves was also a healthy scratch for a third game in a row and the fourth time this season.

The Rangers will have a day off on Friday before playing at Nashville on Saturday.