Red Wings fall to Penguins in Joe Louis Arena preseason finale
By @SKubus –
DETROIT – The Red Wings wrapped up their home preseason action Wednesday night, but it wasn’t the result they hoped for.
Blake Comeau and Oskar Sundqvist lit the lamp, and Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside all 25 shots he faced for a shutout and a 2-0 Pittsburgh Penguins win. Jimmy Howard stopped 31 of 33 pucks he faced for Detroit.
Despite the line of Gustav Nyquist, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen not yet recording a point in the preseason, the line displayed a tremendous amount of energy and had plenty of opportunities against the Pens. The Red Wings captain said nobody is pressing the panic button.
“I don’t see a lot of points, a lot of goals, but I think we create more and more chemistry each game, so we’re going to be ready when the season starts,” Zetterberg said.
Babcock has been critical of the top line throughout the short preseason, but especially liked the line’s performance Wednesday night, along with defenseman Nick Jensen’s game and Howard’s performance between the pipes.
“I thought they had multiple, multiple opportunities, Babcock said of his top line. “I thought those guys played pretty good. I got no issue with them… I thought they got better each game they played.”
A pair of power play opportunities early in the opening frame allowed Detroit to establish a plethora of momentum, but several credible scoring chances couldn’t beat Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. The first period ended with a 14-10 Detroit shot advantage.
“I think we started off well, got a lot of opportunity on the power play,” Zetterberg said. “Obviously, it would’ve been nice if we could score a few on the power play. We created a lot of chances, but didn’t really find a way to get the puck in.”
Pittsburgh struck first with just under 13 minutes remaining in the middle period on a Comeau rebound goal after a scramble in front of Howard.
Later in the period and from his own blue line, Red Wings rearguard Jakub Kindl shipped a heads-up, two-line pass to Riley Sheahan, who broke in down the right side on a 2-on-1 with Tomas Tatar. Sheahan sauced the puck over the Penguins defender’s stick to Tatar whose one-timer just missed wide. The rebound bounced off the end boards to Sheahan and he, from below the goal line, tried to bank the puck in off Fleury but to no avail.
Sundqvist buried a rebound in the high slot early in the final frame to give the Pens a 2-0 cushion.
Tatar was shaken up late in the game after an awkward collision. Comeau cross-checked Tatar as he entered the Pittsburgh zone with the puck, but as he went down, the linesman jumped in attempt to avoid any collision, but ended up kneeing Tatar right in the head. He did not return, but being late in the game, it was not unexpected. Babcock said he was fine and in good spirits after the game.
“He did get hammered pretty good. He said it was worse than UFC,” Babcock said with a laugh of Tatar’s reaction.
The Red Wings wrap up preseason action this weekend with a pair of games against the Maple Leafs and Bruins. The next time Detroit takes to the ice at Joe Louis Arena will be for its season opener Oct. 9 against Boston, where the team finishes its preseason schedule this Saturday.