Red Wings fall to Flyers in Sunday night shootout (with photos)

 

By @StefanKubus –

Fresh off a 5-1-0 West Coast road trip, the Red Wings started their 2016 home schedule with a thrilling battle against the Philadelphia Flyers.

But as it often may go with a hard-fought game, Detroit just came up on the short end of the stick. The Flyers took a 2-1 decision Sunday night at Joe Louis Arena in a shootout after 65 minutes couldn’t solve the contest. Claude Giroux and Niklas Kronwall each scored in regulation, and Jakub Voracek scored the shootout winner. Petr Mrazek stopped 30 of 31 in the game, while former Plymouth Whalers netminder Michal Neuvirth made 29 of 30 stops for Philadelphia.

“I thought it was a good hockey game to be honest with you,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill told reporters after the game. “It was obviously pushed back and forth… I actually thought there was some good chances both ways and both goalies played real good, so it’s not the result we want from a process standpoint, but I thought we did lots of good stuff. I think we need more net-front presence and we obviously just need more results in terms of scoring goals.”

Photos by Michael Caples/MiHockey

In the opening period, a Ryan White blindside hit to Tomas Jurco saw the Flyers forward receive a five-minute major and game misconduct. Additionally, White received a match penalty, which means White is automatically suspended pending a league review of the hit. It wouldn’t be the first suspension for White, either, as he was given five games for a headshot in 2013 when he was with the Montreal Canadiens.

The hit that the league will have to make a decision on in the coming days. #RedWings #Flyers pic.twitter.com/a86i3pDeBV

— Stefan Kubus (@StefanKubus) January 18, 2016

But despite the five-minute power play, the Flyers not only kept the Red Wings off the board in the opening 20 minutes, they also outshot Detroit, 11-10.

Detroit entered the contest with a 20-4-4 record when scoring first and Kronwall delivered for the Wings in the second period.

Late in the frame, Kronwall took a pass across the Flyers’ zone up top from partner Jonathan Ericsson, stepped in and put a wrister on goal. The puck took a bounce off Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas and bounced up and over Neuvirth and in. Philadelphia head coach Dave Hakstol challenged the play on goaltender interference, but the goal stood and Detroit took a 1-0 lead into the dressing room after 40 minutes – even better for the Wings as they held a 12-1-5 record entering the contest when leading after two periods.

However, just 4:24 into the third period, a quick wrister by Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux from the right circle – off a nifty feed from Jakub Voracek – went off the far post and in to knot the game at one.

Mrazek and the Red Wings’ penalty kill helped send the game to overtime, as Detroit was forced to kill a lengthy Philadelphia 5-on-3, which saw Mrazek make a number of high-quality saves.

“I think both teams played well, had lots of chances,” Mrazek said. “Neuvirth played outstanding for them today and better to have one point than zero, but we wanted two.”

A hooking minor by Brendan Smith potentially saved a goal as Sean Couturier had a semi-breakaway with just seconds remaining in the third period. Right off the ensuing face-off to close out regulation, the Flyers thought they had the go-ahead goal with a Shayne Gositsbehere point shot, but as Wayne Simmonds jumped in the air to avoid the point shot, he knocked Mrazek in the head. The officials immediately waved the goal off and the call stood after review.

It turned out to be a bigger break than initially thought, as Simmonds was given a goaltender interference penalty on the play, as well, negating what would’ve been a 4-on-3 Philadelphia power play in overtime.

Overtime proved to be a stalemate, and in the shootout, Datsyuk struck first with a top-shelf backhander. But Giroux responded right after with a silky move to tie the shootout at one. After Brad Richards was unable to convert, Voracek came down the ice and snapped a shot through Mrazek’s five hole to seal the win.

“We kept going, had a big kill in the end, I thought in overtime we had some chances,” Zetterberg said.

The Red Wings next host the St. Louis Blues Wednesday night.