Red Wings win late with OT win over Penguins

Trevor Hamiliton celebrates his first goal as a Red Wings during Detroit's preseason matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins

The Red Wings were alive and well to start the NHL preseason at Little Caesars Arena Wednesday night. Michael Rasmussen proved his willingness to be a full-time player scoring the game-winner in overtime that beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. Detroit surged on shots to the net that was impressive to start the process of a new season recording 44 to Pittsburgh’s 30.

Changes clouded the Detroit Red Wings prior to their first preseason game with the best players needing to step up for the good of the team. Henrik Zetterberg’s retirement from active duty as captain left a massive hole for the franchise and at center on the first pair of lines. While the decision to run with alternate captains was finalized, the question came to who would best fit the shoes of the 15-year veteran.

Their acquisitions of Rasmussen and Filip Zadina would be most important to produce during the preseason to prove they have what it takes to fit the missing piece. Andreas Athanasiou looked to do the work for now against the Penguins who didn’t have major changes over the offseason and would have an answer for Detroit.

They got a power play five minutes into the first stanza but the Red Wings defense did work with veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard keeping the crease clear. They produced plenty of shots during the man advantage that kept them going at a high pace. Detroit attempted to pick things up from their end by the midway point but only made two shots at Tristan Jarry in net for Pittsburgh.

With six minutes left on the clock, Detroit made their way to level the shots on goal with the Penguins keeping plenty of time in their zone to try and get on the board first. Jarry maintained his position recording plenty of glove saves from Red Wings forwards on his right. The Penguins got the puck to run their way again and challenged Howard who read them well to block their eighth shot on the pads and gloved the ninth on a faceoff win to his right. When the horn rang out, neither Howard or Jarry allowed a goal through 20 minutes.  Both had 12 shots with Detroit playing better at the dot winning 65 percent.

As the second got underway, the Penguins scored 18 seconds with Dominik Simon sending it forward to Derek Grant for his first. Detroit answered with a fierce push of the puck to fire shots at Jarry to even the score. Since the Pittsburgh goal, the Red Wings didn’t give their opponent’s a single shot in the last six minutes. Their first power play came to light with assistant coach Dan Bylsma in charge of special teams. Anthony Mantha made two shots in hopes to be the first but was denied on a terrific glove save.

The Red Wings went with the goaltender change midway through regulation bringing in Harri Sateri. When play resumed, it was the Detroit offense still on target firing pucks at Jarry who continued to keep them at bay. It didn’t help his team’s offense to get back into gear as they kept chasing the Red Wings around making only three through 14 minutes. Coach Jeff Blashill decided to take a late strategy in the period switching up the lines to add a surge to scoring chances. Joseph Veleno got his chance at Jarry that nearly went in behind the right pad.

The Red Wings moment to even up the score came on a shot from the boards where Trevor Hamilton drove one into traffic at the net that somehow deflected off the stick of Oleksiak getting over the shoulder of Jarry at 16:17. The game was clearly even but the shots on goal leaned heavily in favor of Detroit as they made 17 with the mission of getting ahead now all that was left to lead. When the second closed, Detroit outshot Pittsburgh 19-5 with Joe Hicketts leading the defense with the most shots taken.

Dylan Larkin got into the mix to begin the third with shots at Jarry that didn’t produce a lead as of yet. He delivered a push of offense from the rest of his team that began to light up the Penguins net. With the pace very high, the Penguins went with a chance to overturn the direction of the score and did so with Ryan Haggerty scoring at 9:02. Detroit didn’t take too long to even things up again getting an open net opportunity that Jussi Jokinen earned 58 seconds later.

Pittsburgh trailed on shots to the net but had their time on puck possession to be in an opportunity to still win the game. They gained a power play with five to go but didn’t get much with Detroit’s PK unit clearing the puck out of their zone. Jack Johnson nearly made it 3-2 with a drive from the outside that rung off the post followed by a near wraparound that Sateri stopped.

The final minute of play saw the puck go all over the place with each time getting their final chances. Justin Schultz killed any more for the Penguins as he was caught for delay of game giving Detroit 90 seconds left on the power play in overtime. Rasmussen, Anthony Mantha and Larkin came in to skate for the Red Wings who moved the puck in where Jarry got a glove on it. Detroit took a timeout to set up a play which had them firing the puck which nearly went in but created more opportunities.

Dennis Cholowski fired a shot that deflected right to Larkin who created the second shot setting up Rasmussen for a point-blank shot scoring the game-winner two seconds after the penalty expired. “We got the power play there and a good shot by Cholowski that hit the post and a great pass by Lark so it was pretty easy,” Rasmussen said to Trevor Thompson of Fox Sports Detroit. “We just set up the puck well and had a first shoot mentality and nice to get it done.”

They’ll try to build on the confidence started with another game Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks.