The Red Wings suffered a second loss at Little Caesars Arena Friday night. The endless power play opportunities they handed to the Toronto Maple Leafs made things easier on the road where they finished with a 4-2 win. Toronto’s slow start in the first period turned into two consecutive periods where they shot a dozen times overwhelming Detroit.
The Red Wings first loss was a tough one to deal with in their new arena, but to finish off the preseason, Detroit wanted to end on a positive note. They began a home and home series with Toronto with captain Henrik Zetterberg in the lineup for the first time. His presence for the rest of the squad gives them a confidence boost to have more veterans on the ice with them. Two games remain for the prospects in order to impress coach Jeff Blashill to put them into the regular season.
Anthony Mantha knew his spot was secured but made the effort to get in the first scoring chance for his team. Mantha ripped one off the stick that just hit the post to Toronto goaltender Frederik Andersen’s left side. It didn’t Toronto long to bring something together for themselves and got it with a side to side pass play near the blue line. A final pass to Mitchell Marner allowed him a chance to fire one high that got over the shoulder of Jimmy Howard in net to score the first goal.
Toronto gained momentum but couldn’t increase their shots on goal with the Red Wings on a tight defense. When they broke Toronto, Detroit went back on the attack to take it to Andersen and get the game leveled. Their scoring chances blew up when they earned a power play midway into the period. They managed to take eight shots on the man advantage but all missed their mark. About a minute back on even strength, Gustav Nyquist set himself up for a drive in the slot that put Detroit on the board with his third of the preseason. It was their 13th shot so far and continued to hold Toronto to a pair.
The final minutes were completely in the hands of Detroit who finished with allowing a single shot to Toronto before completing 20 minutes of non-stop offense. Though he hadn’t contributed a goal, Martin Frk was very much in the play of adding more goals to Detroit’s bottom line having four shots in the period. Defenseman Joe Hicketts was also in on the fun.
Toronto wanted to make something happen in the second period and created a surge in the opening minutes. A good turnover for them in the Detroit zone set up Mike Gardner to make a move of the puck that William Nylander to score on Howard for his second. Howard got into trouble a minute later trying his best not to give up any more to their Original Six rivals.
The Red Wings got another power play but couldn’t make anything of it as their trouble to get pucks on the net was just beginning. Toronto had quality time with the puck shooting three times as much as Detroit with man advantages to use. Though they were denied on both chances, the Maple Leafs had made a statement of their 2-1 lead until the final minute when Detroit woke up.
Detroit got lucky with a loose puck that ended in the hands of Luke Glendening. He got a second chance in front of Andersen that counted on a backhander attempt for his first. It was perfect timing prior to heading into the third which stated that they were done letting Toronto dictate on their ice.
They did just that to begin the third with another play with Nylander firing one into traffic where Auston Matthews was positioned. The redirect he put on the puck gave him his fifth this month to get back the lead 37 seconds in. It was his seventh point of the preseason making him just as good as where he would enjoy time playing the game.
Detroit was awarded the power play but Andersen and the Toronto defense remained firm. They took over possession soon after where both Nylander and Matthews took another shot at scoring a goal but were stopped by Howard. He didn’t find himself out of trouble as his team awarded three consecutive power plays to the Maple Leafs. He saw plenty of shots come to him but his defense helped out to kill every one of them before they got their own chance on the man advantage.
They weren’t able to convert in the 40 seconds they were given making it the fourth one that got away from them. Time quickly fell off the clock that was working against them still sitting a goal down. They took a timeout where they set up a situation that included taking Howard out of the net. It worked against them in the final seconds when Leo Komarov got hold of the puck near the blue line where he slid it across the ice for his first as well.
At the end of it all, Andersen skated off the ice victorious in his first full game stopping 21 of 23 for a .913 save percentage. They’ll prepare to host the Red Wings in the final game Saturday night before resting up for the start of an 82 game season next week.
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