Wings close out preseason with win over Maple Leafs (with photos)

By @StefanKubus –

DETROIT – It was as close to a regular season game as we’ve seen thus far.

Both the Red Wings and Maple Leafs had most of their A-squads dressed for Saturday night’s preseason finale at Joe Louis Arena. It was Detroit came out on top in the Original Six tilt, a 4-3 final. Gustav Nyquist, Dylan Larkin, Brendan Smith and Anthony Mantha all scored for the Wings, while Petr Mrazek stopped 30 of 32.

Both Frans Nielsen and Thomas Vanek made their impacts felt, each in their first preseason game. Nielsen was strong on both sides of the puck, despite not getting on the scoresheet, while Vanek set up two goals.

“I thought it was a good first game for these guys,” Blashill said. “Obviously they played at a high level in the World Cup, and now it’s been over a week since then and i think not knowing all the systems totally they were introduced to certain parts of the systems but not everything, it’s a little uncomfortable. I thought they played good. I thought Vanek did the things he has to do to be real successful; he made some real offensive plays. I thought for the most part defensively he needs to do. We still gotta get a little bit better on some of the tracks.”

Photos by Andie Wojciak/MiHockey

“Vanek probably was our best guy today, made some nice plays, Petr was really good in net, and you can see what Frans can do,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said.

Zetterberg, who missed the World Cup of Hockey and the previous preseason games due to his knee injury, said it felt great afterward.

Newcomer Thomas Vanek got on the scoresheet just 1:46 after putting on a Red Wings jersey, setting up Nyquist with a gorgeous cross-slot pass. Nyquist roofed his second goal and fifth point of the preseason on the play to give the Wings an early 1-0 lead.

On a 5-on-3 power play later in the frame, Zetterberg – in his first preseason game – spotted Larkin crashing the net, found his stick with the feed and Larkin tucked home a backhander to put the Wings up by a pair.

With 3:11 to play in the 2nd, Hyman, a former Wolverine, tried sending a cross-crease pass across to Auston Matthews on the rush near the Detroit goal line. The pass instead bounced off Alexey Marchenko’s skate and in to pull Toronto to within one.

But Smith added one with just 14.6 seconds remaining in the frame, finishing off a nifty tic-tac-toe play with Nyquist and Vanek.

Within the first minute of the third period, the Leafs struck twice to tie things up. First, William Nylander gorgeously tipped home a Connor Carrick point shot to cut Detroit’s lead to one.

And at the 51-second mark, Laich tied the game, though it didn’t originally seem that way. Connor Brown went crashing into Mrazek, and as Laich scored after, it was immediately called no goal on the ice. However, after a challenge by Mike Babcock, the call was overturned, as video replay showed Detroit’s Jonathan Ericsson pushing Brown into Mrazek. That evened things up at three.

At 11:57, Mantha scored his third of the preseason to put the Wings up 4-3. Mantha took a pass from Ericsson in the Toronto zone, faked a Leafs defender by pulling up at the right circle and fired a shot low through traffic that beat Andersen.

Mantha said he felt he had a solid preseason, but that he’ll be prepared even if he’s ultimately cut.

“I’m pretty sure they see everything I did out there,” Mantha said. “It’s not one goal that’s gonna change the difference between making the team or not. It’s just the way I played and they’ll have to make a decision.

“Well I’ll just need to head back to GR, have a great season down there. Obviously, if they call me up, I’ll be ready. If I start here, I’ll be ready. Let’s just see what happens in the next few days.”

Zetterberg said he felt  Mantha played well, but he’s just glad he doesn’t have to make that decision. The good news is that the Wings will have quality reinforcements in Grand Rapids, no matter what happens.

Blashill had other thoughts on Mantha’s game, despite the game-winning goal. He and Andreas Athanasiou are two players vying to take a final roster spot with final cuts coming Monday.

“I didn’t think him or AA were good enough to be honest with you,” Blashill said. “They’ve gotta be better than that. These are big games for those guys and now two of the three, they’ve gotta be better. I told the young guys in camp to slap me in the face and tell me you’re better than other options. It can’t be a period, it’s gotta be 60 minutes. But with that said, I thought they picked it up in the third.

“Puck battles are what it comes down to, and you’ve gotta win puck battles and you’ve gotta move your feet.”

Blashill added how impressed he was with Nyquist’s game, citing his play as an example for the younger players.

“The guy to me that was great tonight was Nyquist. He was on the puck, he created turnovers, he moved his feet, he won battles. That’s how you have to play to be successful in the NHL. I think there’s a great example right there of what it takes.”

Detroit is expected to announce its final roster on Monday heading into the regular season.