The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects settled down and played their individual and team games to a tee on Saturday night, and the result was a satisfying 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
The now 1-and-1 Wings’ prospects received goals from Michael Rasmussen (2G, 1A) and Dennis Cholowski (1G, 1A), and Kaden Fulcher didn’t have to stop a ton of shots, but the 16 shots he stopped were often of the superb-to-tremendous variety as the Wings held off Miro Heiskanen and a Stars team that had scored 7 goals in its previous game.
After the game, as per usual, interviews were scarce, but the Wings’ leadership group was slow to the showers, so:
Michael Rasmussen spoke with the assembled media for a staggering length of time by Michael Rasmussen (the quick-spoken one) standards, 5 minutes, addressing the goals he scored, the team’s effort against the high-scoring Stars, his status as a leader in the locker room and on the ice, the team’s outlook going forward and his aversion to plums:
Vili Saarijarvi spoke with myself and Hooked on Hockey’s Kevin Sporka, and Saarijarvi was his affable, talkative self, discussing his hydration (Saarijarvi cramped up again, but battled through it), the team’s effort and attempts to play good hockey from a “process” standpoint, the ways in which the team played strong 3-zone hockey with good puck support, and he addressed his role as both a leader wearing an “A” on his jersey and as an older player looking to step up:
Finally, coach Ben Simon spoke with myself, Sporka, and DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner and Dana Wakiji, discussing the game as a satisfying endeavor, the fact that so many teams (every team but Columbus) is 1-and-1 at the tournament, making Monday’s game against the Rangers a must-win affair, we talked about process and progress for players that have it going (like Dennis Cholowski) and those that don’t (Filip Zadina and David Pope) have it going offensively, and ahead of a day off to take part in a charitable activity, the coach felt that his team still has more to give:
first game i liked den’ski (trying to make up something because name too long) skating but not thinking , this game real impressed . he looks to have way more to bring to the attack then i thought . moves up ice through seems with puck very quickly , now with those wheels added to his size/ reach im seeing a possible top pairing 200′ guy . and very agile skater in own end making for a valuable guy when opponants have puck . like ehn wheels , maybe can be a 4 line shut down guy .
They call Dennis Cholowski “Cholo.” It works.
Cholo has been playing like he will wants the the available D-man spot on the Wings. I kind of doubt they give him a roster spot on opening day but I believe he will be up before the end of the season.
The open roster spot is probably for Hicketts or Hronek to lose.