Red Wings give Avalanche their first loss of 2013-14 season

By Nick Barnowski –

It was a reunion of sorts between the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.

With Patrick Roy facing Detroit as a head coach for the first time, the two historic rivals met for the first time since the Wings moved to the Eastern Conference.

In a game that seemed almost as intense as the Detroit-Colorado battles of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the ­Red Wings won 4-2 to hand the Avalanche their first loss of the season. Johan Franzen and Pavel Datsyuk led the way for the Red Wings, both lighting the lamp twice in the victory.

The game got off to a frightening start.

A dangerous hit delivered by Avalanche forward Cody McLeod resulted in Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall being taken off the ice on a stretcher less than three minutes into the game.

Kronwall was retrieving a puck below his own goal line and in the process was boarded from behind by McLeod. Kronwall remained on the ice for a lengthy amount of time before being placed on a stretcher. He missed the rest of the game, and it was reported by Fox Sports Detroit that he suffered a mild concussion and a cut ear on the play. He was treated in the Red Wings dressing room and did not go to the hospital.

McLeod was assessed a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.

The Red Wings took advantage of the major penalty, as Johan Franzen scored his first of the season from a Henrik Zetterberg pass to put Detroit up 1-0.

Detroit continued to put shots on Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, and with five minutes left in the first period Pavel Datsyuk scored his third goal of the season to give the Red Wings a 2-0 lead. Datsyuk picked up his own rebound after deflecting a Danny DeKeyser shot from the blue line and after a small deke shot the puck past Varlamov’s blocker.

With the first period coming to a close, Jonas Gustavsson, making his third consecutive start, denied a Matt Duchene breakway chance to keep Detroit’s lead at two.

Less than a minute into the second period, Gustavsson answered the call again by making two quick stops on shots in the center of the slot, the first with his toe and the second with his glove while without his stick.

Todd Bertuzzi took a holding penalty shortly after, and on the ensuing power play, Erik Johnson scored on a shot from the right face-off circle to get Colorado within one.

Colorado sustained the momentum gained after the Johnson goal and the tension remained high, culminating with a fight between Drew Miller and Cory Sarich with around seven minutes to go in the second.

Miller received a cross-checking penalty just prior to the fight, and Gabriel Landeskog answered quickly after for a power-play goal, his first of the season. Paul Stastny won a face-off that went straight to the Colorado captain outside of the Detroit zone, and the 20-year-old Swede carried the puck in and fired a shot from just above the face-off circle that tied the game at two.

Detroit regained the lead in the third period as Franzen scored his second of the game on the power play to give his team a 3-2 lead. Justin Abdelkader and Daniel Alfredsson (his second of the night) picked up assists on the goal.

Datsyuk added his second in similar fashion to his first, putting the puck past Varlamov on his second shot attempt to put Detroit up 4-2. Alfredsson dished him the puck in the slot after patiently evading two Colorado defenders for his eighth point in four games.

Gustavsson made 38 saves in the win, while Varlamov made 24 in the loss. Detroit improved to 6-2, while Colorado is now 6-1.