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Red Wings beat Avalanche at Stadium Series outdoor game in Denver

MiHockey Staff
Photo by Erik Roush/MiHockey
Photo by Erik Roush/MiHockey

 

 

By @MichaelCaples and Andrew Ketterer –

The Avalanche may have won the alumni game, but the Red Wings won the game that mattered.

Brad Richards’ goal with exactly one minute remaining in regulation gave the Red Wings a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night at Coors Field in Denver as part of the 2016 NHL Stadium Series.

Richards guided the puck towards the Colorado goal after Niklas Kronwall sent it towards goaltender Semyon Varlamov, and the puck floated under the crossbar for the game-winning goal.

“I saw it go back towards Kronner and saw that he was going to keep it in,” Richards said. “Got lucky that he put it on net, which was a good play by him, but I got lucky that it came right to me. I had a little bit of time to kind of chip it at the goalie.

“I’d be lying if I told you I tried to put it in, I just kind of chipped it towards the net, he was kind of out of position and it hit his back or something, but I’ll take those.”

With the win, the Red Wings improve to 31-20-11 – picking up an important two points in a special outdoor game with the team that used to be Hockeytown’s biggest rival.

Great experience, huge win for us on the road,” Mrazek said after the game. “We lost to them in the regular season, good for us to get this one back.”

Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyquist, Justin Abdelkader, Richards and Darren Helm scored for the Wings in the outdoor match. Meanwhile, Petr Mrazek stopped 24 shots to pick up the win between the pipes.

They had to battle the elements to win, but not in a traditional outdoor game. Instead of snow, it was wind the teams had to fight through, with swirling gusts of air blowing around cotton the NHL had used to simulate snow on the ground.

“It was a little weird, but we just tried to stick with it, and we wanted to really win this game,” Tatar said. “Fans were great, we were really happy that they came to support us all the way to here, and I think it was a good game to watch.”

Coach Jeff Blashill said his team knew to be prepared for weird moments like the faux snow swirls.

“We talked about before the game, when you play events like this, a lot of things happen and you have to be prepared for weird stuff to happen and you have to stay poised,” the Wings’ bench boss said. “I don’t think it really had an effect; there were just a few moments where that happened.

“What a great event, I thought it was awesome, I thought the crowd was awesome, I thought it was a great setting, and I was real thankful to be a part of it.”

Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie and Alex Tanguay scored for the Avalanche, while Varlamov stopped 23 of 27 shots.

Detroit improved their modern-day outdoor record to 2-1 with the victory – the Wings beat Chicago 6-4 in the 2009 Winter Classic but fell to Toronto in a shootout during the 2014 Winter Classic in Ann Arbor.

“Awesome, it’s something special to play a game like this, and I’m really happy I could be a part of this,” Tatar said. “I’m really happy we won, last Winter Classic we lost in a shootout and it didn’t feel the best.”

The Wings managed to post five goals in the road contest despite failing to score on five power-play opportunities. Detroit is now 0-for-17 on the man advantage in their last six games.

Tatar was the first to strike, scoring the game’s opening goal at the 5:07 mark of the first period. After trying to score with a short-side shot, Tatar tried for a wraparound then grabbed the loose puck and finally beat Varlamov for his 17th goal of the season.

Less than three minutes later, Nathan MacKinnon evened the score for the Avalanche, beating Mrazek with a quick shot on a two-on-one.

Tyson Barrie scored with five minutes remaining in the period to give Colorado a 2-1 lead, finishing off a passing play on an odd-man rush by the Avalanche with a deke to freeze Mrazek before scoring on an empty net.

After a scoreless second period, it was Nyquist who started a wild third period. The Wings’ No. 14, while facing away from the Colorado goal, sent a backhander top-shelf past Varlamov to tie the game at 2-2 just 1:27 into the final period.

At the 13:28 mark of the third period, Abdelkader redirected a pass from Helm past Varlamov to give the Red Wings a 3-2 lead. It was Abdelkader’s 15th goal of the season. Luke Glendening started the play by dumping the puck into the Colorado end, and Helm won the ensuing footrace to regain possession.

“Glenny did a good job getting the puck deep there,” Abdelkader said. “Helmer, with his speed, got to the puck first and I knew, I had a feeling he was going to try to get it to the front of the net there, and I just tried to park myself in front and get a stick on it for a redirection. I wouldn’t say it’s fluky, I would just say that’s what we’re trying to do, get pucks to the front of the net, and Helmer made a good play finding me and getting it on my stick there.”

However, Tanguay tied the game 14 seconds later, beating Mrazek during a wild scrum in the Wings’ zone.

After six minutes of scoreless play from there, Richards scored the go-ahead goal for the Wings – his 7th tally of the season.

“We talked about funneling pucks towards that area, and he found a way to get it up and over,” Blashill said. “I haven’t seen it a second time yet, so I don’t have a real feel for it, but I was certainly happy when it found the back of the net.”

Helm had the final goal for Detroit, starting the road team’s celebration with an empty-netter 20 seconds before the final buzzer.

After the game, Abdelkader said it was important for his team to leave Denver with two points for the standings.

“It’s huge,” the Muskegon native said. “They came out to start, they were skating well and had a lot of chances there, I thought we got better as the game went on. I thought the Nyquist goal was big for us, kind of got us going again there, and from there on, we played good.”