Blackhawks rout Red Wings during Mr. Hockey’s birthday

By Matt Slovin –

DETROIT — After skating in warm-ups wearing Gordie Howe’s No. 9 sweater, the Red Wings came out of the gate Sunday looking far from Mr. Hockey.

With Howe in attendance to celebrate his 85^th birthday, Detroit lost its second straight, a 7-1 decision to Chicago.

Cory Emmerton scored the lone goal for the Red Wings, while Jonas Gustavsson replaced Jimmy Howard after the Wings’ starting netminder allowed four goals on 14 shots in the first 23:52 of the contest.

Former Saginaw Spirit star Brandon Saad scored twice for the Blackhawks, while Dave Bolland added a pair, as well.

In a span of 99 seconds, the Blackhawks scored three goals and took complete control of the Original Six contest by the 4:12 mark of the first period.

Two minutes and 33 seconds into the game, Chicago’s Jeremy Morin, playing his first game of the season, reaped the benefits of a friendly bounce off the Joe Louis Arena boards and flicked in a loose puck from the crease.

Saad soon followed with his fifth tally of the season after an ill-timed Detroit line change. The rookie forward faked out Jimmy Howard after receiving a nice feed, and after the Blackhawks’ first two shots of the game, they led 2-0.

No Chicago goal was more unfortunate than the third one, though. Jakub Kindl inexplicably backhanded the puck over Howard’s shoulder. Several Blackhawks were applying pressure, and Dave Bolland was given credit for the goal, his sixth of the year.

After the first intermission, the next goal became crucial to either get the Red Wings back into the game or sink them completely. Again, the Blackhawks scored in bunches, adding two in the middle frame despite being outshot through 40 minutes.

Four minutes into the period, Jonathan Toews notched his 17^th goal of the season off a Detroit turnover. The score prompted Mike Babcock to remove Howard from the game, opting to turn the crease over to Jonas Gustavsson.

Eight seconds later, just three ticks off the Chicago record for quickest goals in succession, Saad scored his second of the afternoon immediately after the faceoff. Brian Lashoff was in pursuit but couldn’t beat Saad to the loose puck.

Mikael Samuelsson left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

Detroit peppered Chicago goalie Corey Crawford with shots all afternoon, but Crawford made the big saves to improve his record to 14-4-3.

Emmerton’s goal came at the 19:27 mark of the third period, when he beat Crawford from the left face-off circle.

The Red Wings didn’t take a penalty throughout the entire contest.

But Chicago was the more opportunistic team, and Detroit didn’t help itself at the defensive end, as the Blackhawks improved to 3-0 this season against their archrivals.