Red Wings bring another win home against Chicago

Andreas Athanasiou high fives his teammates during Detroit's 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks

The Red Wings put together another impressive win at Little Caesars Arena Thursday night. With just 28 shots against the Chicago Blackhawks, they managed to get ahead late in the game to beat them 4-2 and improve to 2-0 during the NHL preseason. Evgeny Svechnikov and Andreas Athanasiou scored to give the fans a lot to be happy about.

Detroit’s first game-winner on Wednesday has the other half of the squad intent on winning and surpassing the actions of their teammates against the Blackhawks. Red Wings draftee Filip Zadina and Svechnikov had the spotlight on them and would attempt to show their skills early as spots on the forward lines were open for the best. With them and the other half of the veterans ready to return to action, it would be up to Detroit to respond against Chicago who was in a situation of rebuilding and still without the services of Corey Crawford.

Anton Forsberg started for Chicago and quickly dealt with shots from the Red Wings including one from Givani Smith who came in with a clean shot. By the eight-minute mark, they had six shots on Forsberg showing their urge to get on the scoreboard first. Jonathan Bernier handled a few from the Blackhawks as well but wouldn’t let them light it up behind him.

Detroit kept the puck possession well under control as they fought to spend plenty of time in the Chicago zone. A power play at 12:38 by Lucas Carlsson gave Detroit the opportunity they wanted to make the lead possible. A shot from Gustav Nyquist near the boards bounced off the skates of teammate Tomas Vanek that flew under the arm of Forsberg to make a statement with seven to go.

Chicago didn’t get many scoring chances after it as the Red Wings defense played man to man coverage to kill time off the clock. When the final minute was in play, Detroit spent time putting every puck that got on their sticks to the net. Despite not getting a second goal behind Forsberg, they finished 20 minutes outshooting Chicago 11-7.

The Blackhawks came out in the second period on a mission to dictate the game for once and took just three and a half minutes to do so. On a great fight for the puck in the Detroit end with Patrick Kane bringing the puck across the neutral zone in a three-man play. With assists from Nick Schmaltz and Brandon Saad, the veteran got the honor to score his first of the preseason. It added confidence to the rest of his teammates that wanted a piece of the action. Just 98 second later, MacKenzie Entwistle scored with Luke Johnson in tow to take the lead.

They gained a power play but didn’t make much from it getting back to even strength. By the halfway point of the game, both teams switched with Detroit bringing in goaltender Patrik Rybar and Chicago putting in netminder Kevin Lankinen. It turned out to be the best thing for Detroit as they got a goal to even the score thanks to Athanasiou who rushed into the Chicago crease to score his first.

Despite losing the ground made up, Chicago was very much in the mix with Detroit when getting time with the puck. The remainder of the period had both teams switching up possession and both Lankinen and Rybar stopping everything that came to them. When the horn sounded the end of 40 minutes, it was the Red Wings who again outshot the Blackhawks 10-9 with the third being huge for both to conduct a victory.

The third started out slow with both teams getting chances with the puck but no real indication of pressuring the opposing goaltenders. It took six minutes before a Red Wings play with Smith ended with a pass to Svechnikov to score right near Lankinen giving Detroit a 3-2 lead. “It means a lot,” said Svechnikov during his post-game interview with John Keating of FSD “Not just for me but for the entire team tonight. I think we played well and deserved to score and win the game tonight. I feel good and it gives me way more confidence.”

With very little time left in regulation, the Blackhawks pulled the goaltender to run six players on the ice to level the score and force overtime. Detroit wouldn’t let that slide as Rybar covered his place and made a terrific glove save through traffic with 52 seconds left. Chicago took a timeout to try and set up a chance to play on with Detroit putting together a defensive response. They got hold of the puck, attacked the Blackhawks with possession and pushed it out just enough to give Nyquist a shot for the empty net.

The production of goals and outshooting the competition had them in a great spot to make decisions but there was still more challenges awaiting them. They would prepare for their next matchup Saturday night hosting the Boston Bruins who came off their series in China against Calgary.