The Red Wings have had to handle some of the NHL’s toughest competition on this four-game road trip. Excluding Columbus, of course.
Detroit went into Dallas looking to bring home six out of eight possible points. A high-energy “grind it out” type of game wound up falling short of what the team wanted, but they managed to get a point out of it.
Perhaps the biggest headline in this game was David Perron. This was his 1000th NHL game and thanks to a game-tying goal, the Wings got that highly-valuable point. Oh, and he made a little history:
1st Period
No late start for either team. The entire opening period was high-energy on both sides of the ice. After both teams traded some scoring chances, it was Dylan Larkin that opened the scoring with a (kind of?) lazy shot that Jake Oettinger couldn’t track. The play was mostly thanks to a great sequence from Austin Czarnik, who continues to impress during his call-up:
Jonatan Berggren deserves some credit for that goal as well.
Dallas and Detroit would continue to slug it out until Detroit got a chance on the power play. A few really good looks and some decent movement, but the first attempt for Detroit didn’t produce a goal. The Stars would answer with a game-tying goal late in the period from Denis Gurianov. It was a broken 2v2 play that was nearly offside.
- Depth players continue to have a positive impact on Detroit’s roster
- Maybe not Adam Erne, though
- Filip Hronek continues to play like a God
2nd Period
The key to this part of the game was all special teams. Detroit’s penalty-kill unit got a fair workout in the second — three penalties, including a four-minute high-sticking penalty to Jake Walman.
The penalty kill was wildly successful until that four-minute chance for Dallas. Jamie Benn scored early — another broken play where Benn was left wide open with too much time to wind-up his shot. Ville Husso got left out to dry on this play. Up to this point, Husso had looked rock-solid with a few big saves.
Down 2-1 after the goal from Benn, just a few minutes later, Mr. 1000 (David Perron) scored a game-tying tally. The play came from the face-off in Dallas’ zone — Mo Seider fed the puck right into Ben Chiarot’s wheelhouse. Meanwhile, Perron was going straight to the net:
- Despite the goal, the PK was solid
- Ville Husso deserves a lot more credit
- The officiating hasn’t been great
3rd Period/OT
Detroit would pick up a chance on the PP in the first few minutes, another spoiled chance unfortunately — I don’t think they even registered a shot. Dallas would jump in the driver’s seat and control the share of SOG. Both goaltenders were solid, but Husso stood out the most.
The Stars nearly took the game in the closing seconds but a goalpost bailed the Red Wings out of a Jason Robertson game-winner.
Overtime could not have gone much worse for Detroit. They had no problem with possession. They spent minutes skating circles around Dallas, keeping Miro Heiskanen on the ice for well over two minutes at one point. The problem — not a single scoring chance to be generated. It was almost as if the Red Wings were playing for the shootout. At times, it looked as if some players were waiting for the puck to simply jump into Dallas’ net on its own.
After several minutes of very frustrating three-on-three hockey, Dallas got Detroit at the raw-end of a shift. Weak legs and mental errors gave way for Nils Lundqvist to seal it with around 30 seconds left.
FINAL: 3-2, Dallas (OT)
That’s a tough loss. It felt like Dallas was begging for Detroit to win the game in OT but the Wings simply couldn’t strike. All they really did was waste a bunch of energy. Nevertheless, the Wings grinded it out and salvaged a point. That’s a positive. They also picked up five out of a possible eight points on this road trip. That’s not amazing, but it’s certainly not disappointing.
THUMBS UP: Goaltending, penalty kill
THUMBS DOWN: 3v3 strategy, power play
The Red Wings head back home for a matchup with Carolina on Tuesday and a quick trip to Minnesota to play the Wild on Wednesday.