Red Wings-Sabres preseason game #1 Tweetcap: Detroit cruises past the Sabres 5-2 thanks to vets & youngsters

The Detroit Red Wings dressed their “A Team” for Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, and yes, Dylan Larkin scored a goal, Lucas Raymond had 2 assists, Andrew Copp had a goal and an assist, and Detroit cruised to a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres…

But Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Axel Sandin Pellikka, Emmitt Finnie, Amadeus Lombardi and the Grand Rapids Griffins-contracted Jacob Truscott all had good games, Michal Postava pitched a 10-save shutout in the second half of the game, and the youngsters looked very, very bright as Detroit ended up going 3-for-5 on the PK and 1-for-4 on the PP.

Cam Talbot also had 6 stops; Mason Appleton opened the scoring on a shorthanded goal at 5:39; Brandsegg-Nygard scored from Sandin Pellikka and the also quite good Nate Danielson; Jacob Bernard-Docker’s “around the world” play yielded Dylan Larkin’s game-winner; and Moritz Seider led the team with 21:48 played, landing 5 hits, tied with Finnie for the team lead in that regard.

Long story long, for the second time in 3 nights, the Red Wings out-worked, out-hustled and out-executed their opponents.

Now Detroit will send one team to Pittsburgh tomorrow afternoon for the 7 PM game on Friday night (on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit), and then another team to Buffalo for a 3 PM matinee on Saturday (on DetroitRedWings.com).

1st period: The Red Wings came out with some “oomph”…

Penalty: Detroit was assessed a bench minor at 5:27 of the 1st…Buffalo went to the power play.

GOAL: Andrew Copp swiped the puck from Alexandar Georgiev and centered it to Mason Appleton, who made it 1-0 at 5:39, shorthanded. Detroit 1, Buffalo 0.

GOAL: But then the Buffalo Sabres tied the goal on their power play as Jack Quinn and Josh Doan found Noah Ostlund, who tucked the puck through Cam Talbot at 6:23. Detroit 1, Buffalo 1.

Penalty: Larkin, Raymond and Finnie worked together on the first line, drawing a penalty as Finnie was slashed from behind at 7:59 of the 1st…Detroit went to the power play.

GOAL: And Michael Brandsegg-Nygard was the beneficiary of a set of passes from Emmitt Finnie to Nate Danielson and Axel Sandin Pellikka.

The goal was credited MBN from ASP and Danielson @ 9:04 1st period, PPG. 2-1 Detroit.

Also:

Penalty: Dylan Larkin was taken down by Michael Kesselring with a hold at 15:38. Detroit to the power play.

The Red Wings did not score on the PP, but the second unit of Brandsegg-Nygard, Copp, Lombardi, Danielson and Sandin Pellikka was very impressive.

Moritz Seider remained himself:

End of the 1st: Detroit out-shot Buffalo 15-4 and lead 2-1. “The kids” were playing fast, hard hockey against the Sabres’ “B Team,” and they were dominant.

2nd period: Buffalo came out with a heavy forecheck and banged a set of shots wide of Talbot, and they tried their best to shut the Wings down from center ice inward, so the Red Wings found their task much more difficult as the Sabres had awakened.

Some 4:43 into the 2nd period, Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin worked the puck laterally and found Emmitt Finnie in the slot, and Finnie deked, dangled, and put the puck into the toe of Alexandar Georgiev. It was a gorgeous play, but Finnie had to lift it.

Penalty: Michael Brandsegg-Nygard was called for tripping at 5:48 of the 2nd period, mostly due to Jack Rathbone falling over MBN’s stick after the Red Wings’ #28 was tripped as well. Last man tripped call.

GOAL: Buffalo tied the game 2-2 as Josh Doan tucked home a set of passes that caught the Red Wings’ PK unit with crossed signals, and Cam Talbot was too aggressive, and got caught swimming. Jack Quinn and Noah Ostlund got the assists at 6:59 2nd, PPG. Buffalo 2, Detroit 2.

Detroit’s PK was 0-for-2.

GOAL: A little later, at 10:04, Jacob Bernard-Docker skated “around the world,” flicked a puck into the slot traffic, and Dylan Larkin tapped down the puck and jammed the rebound through Alexandar Georgiev to make it 3-2. The goal read Larkin from Bernard-Docker and Raymond. Detroit 3, Buffalo 2.

Then the Wings changed goaltenders:

GOAL: At 12:35 of the 2nd, Moritz Seider extended the Wings’ lead to 4-2 by sending a centering pass off Jack Rathbone’s glove and into Alexandar Georgiev’s goal. The goal read Seider from Elmer Soderblom and Jacob Truscott at 12:35. 4-2 DETROIT.

PENALTY: Jacob Bernard-Docker was called for high-sticking at 13:00 exactly…Affording Buffalo a power play…

And Mason Appleton nearly scored on a 2-on-1 with Andrew Copp…

But Buffalo set up in the Wings’ zone, and Postava had to make a toe stop on Doan that resulted in a scrum in the corner as Johansson got popped in the face.

PENALTY: As a result, Peyton Krebs was called for roughing at 14:45. After a short 4-on-4, Detroit headed to the power play.

Justin Danforth nearly scored chugging up the gut shorthanded, but Postava made a nice stop…

At the other end of the ice, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard was popped by Mrtka in the face, Rasmsusen retaliated, and Rasmussen and a Sabre got into it, Mrtka was pulled out of the pile by Chiarot, but Chiarot was separated from Mrtka by the referee…

Penalty: Offsetting minors were called. Ben Chiarot and Josh Dunn for the Wings and Sabres, respectively. 4 on 4 at 16:52.

GOAL: Lucas Raymond deked and dangled his way into the slot, sending a shot off Georgiev, and Andrew Copp knocked the rebound through Georgiev’s 5-hole to make it 5-2 DETROIT at 18:23.

END 2nd:

3rd period:

Penalty: A nice rush by Emmitt FInnie and Dylan Larkin charging up the gut yielded a penalty to Josh Doan at 1:30 of the 3rd period. Roughing to Doan meant a Red Wings power play.

Not much happened during the Red Wings’ power play, but Detroit burned some time off the scoreboard while in the Buffalo zone.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Amadeus Lombardi combined for a nice scoring chance soon after:

Penalty: Marco Kasper was called for a penalty at 8:12 of the 3rd period, affording the Sabres another power play off a weak hooking call. Buffalo power play.

Michal Postava made two tremendous stops on Zach Mesta to stifle the Sabres’ PP…

As play continued, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard got a mini-breakaway, he was tugged and pulled at, but MBN made a really good chug-chug-chug rush up the gut and jammed the puck into Georgiev:

Penalty: Regrettably, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard got called for slashing with 1:15 left in the 3rd period, while he, Lombardi and Elmer Soderblom were cycling in the offensive zone.

Buffalo headed to the PP, and did little with it.

In the practice shootout, one goal was scored:

Final stats: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

2 thoughts on “Red Wings-Sabres preseason game #1 Tweetcap: Detroit cruises past the Sabres 5-2 thanks to vets & youngsters”

  1. Finnie is starting to force his way into the conversation for the Wings’ lineup. I know Max Bultman at the Athletic has been pretty high on him through training camp. Here’s the thing: I feel like teams need to unearth “hidden gem” type players in order to really succeed in today’s NHL (heck, the Wings made a cottage industry out of that during the 90s-00s heyday). And Detroit hasn’t done so in a long, long time. Yes, GMSY has hit on some first-rounders, but that should be the baseline.

    I’m not suggesting that Finnie can actually thrive in a top-line role, but he’s certainly showing enough to warrant a spot somewhere. Positive things seem to happen whenever he’s on the ice. And if by some miracle he COULD knock on the door of that elusive first-line winger…

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