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Brunner’s shootout goal lifts Wings to victory in Columbus

MiHockey Staff
Damien Brunner scored the shootout winner for the Red Wings Monday night. (Tom Turrill/MiHockey)

By Michael Caples –

There was plenty of hype surrounding newcomer Damien Brunner during the Red Wings’ shortened training camp.

The hype’s only going to continue after that shootout move.

The 26-year-old native Oberlunkhofen, Switzerland, scored the decisive goal in the fourth round of the shootout between the Red Wings and Blue Jackets Monday night to give Detroit their first victory of the season.

Brunner scored on a deke normally reserved for Pavel Datsyuk; the new Red Wing went with the backhand toe drag to fool Sergei Bobrovsky. After the game, he told Fox Sports Detroit that his team wanted to erase a disappointing loss in their season-opener.

“We played horrible in the first game and we wanted to come back and strong,” Brunner said. “I thought we started pretty good but then we let them come back in the game, and then we finally won in the shootout.”

Brian Lashoff scored his first NHL goal to break the Red Wings’ goal drought 1:10 into the second period. Ian White and Pavel Datsyuk added the other regulation goals for the Wings, while Jimmy Howard stopped 30 shots to get his first win of the season.

The Wings recorded 42 shots on goal through 65 minutes, a significant increase from the 14 they recorded in their season opener in St. Louis.

The win came with a price, however; newcomer Carlo Colaiacovo suffered what appeared to be an upper-body injury that coach Mike Babcock said would keep him out for the foreseeable future. Lashoff was called up just hours before puck drop because of an injury Jonathan Ericsson sustained in Sunday’s practice.

Colaiacovo will join an injury list that includes Todd Bertuzzi, Darren Helm, Jonas Gustavsson, and Jan Mursak; it was announced before the game, however, that Bertuzzi’s mononucleosis diagnosis was inaccurate, and he can return to the line-up soon.

Notes:

  • The Red Wings were 0-for-7 on the power play, while the Blue Jackets were 2-for-6.
  • Canton native James Wisniewski scored the Blue Jackets’ second goal, which helped Columbus rally from a 2-0 deficit in the third period.
  • Tom McCollum was the Red Wings’ back-up goalie tonight, called up to replace the injured Gustavsson.