A late third period goal from Detroit’s Kris Draper allowed the Red Wings to win a fourth straight match at the Centennial Classic alumni game. Their 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs alums at BMO Field Saturday gave them three straight wins against their old division rivals.
For the second time in two years, the Red Wings and Maple Leafs legends got back to it with many names joining the squads for the rematch. Detroit took both games back in 2014 hoping to keep the streak alive playing a single game in Toronto. Despite the Red Wings not having Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov there was still plenty of power on their end. Toronto’s first chance of having an outdoor game on their home turf gave them pride to add many names to their roster which included Doug Gilmour, Lanny McDonald, Curtis Joseph and Tie Domi.
McDonalds went for the first big play of the day going in alone on Detroit netminder Chris Osgood but his shot was blocked on the leg pad. Tomas Holmstrom went for a breakaway on Toronto starting goalie Mike Palmateer sending him down who later had trouble getting up. Felix Potvin came into replace him keeping the game scoreless through ten minutes.
Goaltending remained strong on both sides of the ice with Kevin Hodson getting time in net for Detroit. Borje Salming got Toronto a third penalty shot in the period but his opportunity was knocked down in what was the final play of the period.
Manny Legace began the second period handling the scoring chances from the Maple Leafs. The Red Wings fought for possession and did it with tremendous fight. They recovered the puck on a shot where the puck was delivered to Nicklas Lidstrom firing a centering shot that beat Joseph. Detroit made it 2-0 with Igor Larionov going in all alone on Joseph to beat him on the glove side.
Detroit was on a runaway carrying the momentum heavily. A pass from Martin Lapointe to Brendan Shanahan allowed the veteran forward to launch a high shot for his first of the game. Toronto knew that something had to be done to prevent the skunk. It was taken care of by Maple Leafs captain Wendell Clark who got well ahead of the Detroit defense taking two shots before the last one got into the net.
Toronto got within a goal to start the third period with Tucker slapping away at the puck in front of Legace. Lidstrom and the Red Wings tried to stop the play but Darcy Tucker’s lift gave him the contributing factor that put the Maple Leafs down by one. Domi tied things up with 12 minutes left where three times were taken on the shift. He took the rebound shot finding enough space behind Legace to level the score at three all with ten minutes to go.
A fight nearly broke out between Draper and Gary Roberts as the two collided near the boards. Draper tried his best to begin a throw down on the ice but referees and other players prevented an incident from occurring despite pleas from the fans. With no time stoppages, the clocked freely moved towards the end with both teams looking to change the score. With two minutes to go, the Red Wings made it happen with Dino Ciccarelli taking a slap shot that went off the pads of Joseph to rebound over to Draper. It was there that his one timer went into the net that gave them the 4-3 winners.
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