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Red Wings, Griffins both win 2019-2020 season openers

MiHockey Staff

 

By @MichaelCaples –

In a season where fans will be interested in how things are going in Grand Rapids almost as much as Detroit, both the Red Wings and Griffins started with victories in their season openers.

The NHL club picked up a 5-3 win over the Predators down in Nashville, while the AHL club registered a 8-5 win over the Wolverines in Chicago.

Here’s a look at both:

Red Wings 5, Predators 3

Thanks to four goals from the top line of Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi, the Red Wings started the 2019 NHL season with a road win over the Nashville Predators.

Bertuzzi scored twice, while Larkin and Mantha also found the back of the net in the win for Detroit – the trio combined for nine total points.

The game-winning goal, however, came from Luke Glendening; the Grand Rapids native broke a 3-3 tie with an impressive shot past goaltender Juuse Saros on an odd-man rush at the 9:24 mark of the third period.

Here was the game-winning goal:

 

Meanwhile, Jimmy Howard stopped 39 of the 42 shots sent his way to pick up his first win of the season between the pipes for Detroit.

Here was Larkin’s first strike of the season, too – a blast from just inside the blue line.

 

Griffins 8, Wolves 5

The Griffins utilized a well-balanced attack to post a big win over the Wolves in the first night of action for the Wings’ AHL affiliate.

Evgeny Svechnikov, Matthew Ford, Michael Rasmussen, Chris Terry, Oliwer Kaski, Ryan Kuffner and Gvani Smith all scored in the opener for Grand Rapids; Ford also added an empty-netter at the end.

Ford led the way with four points in the game, while Svechnikov had three.

Moritz Seider, the Wings’ 2019 first-round pick, finished with a team-high +3 rating, one assist and one shot on goal. Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno were held off the scoresheet, and both had -1 ratings at the end of the night.

Calvin Pickard stopped 35 shots in the victory.

Here was how the Griffins started the contest lines-wise; as you can see, there are a lot of players to keep an eye on this season.