Red Wings-Penguins game #1 Tweetcap: Despite Gibson’s strong ‘first half,’ Wings surrender a 2-0 lead, lose 3-2 to Pittsburgh

Neither the Detroit Red Wings nor the Pittsburgh Penguins dressed their “A Teams” on Friday night. Pittsburgh was preparing for Marc-Andre Fleury’s farewell game on Saturday vs. Columbus, and Detroit found itself away from Little Caesars Arena, in the middle of a 3-games-in-3-nights stretch…

Nonetheless, a preseason game remains an important “teaching tool” for the coaching staffs and an opportunity for the team’s players, both young and not-so-young, to make good impressions upon the coaches, front office, and anybody else working for another team in the stands.

And the result was a 3-2 victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins in which they rallied from a 2-0 deficit to the Red Wings over the course of the second half of the game.

John Gibson was excellent in the first half for Detroit, stopping 13 of 14 shots in 31:48 of play; Michal Postava didn’t have much help defensively while stopping 4 of 6 shots. Detroit’s power play went 1-for-3 in 4:23, and the PK went 3-for-4.

John Leonard scored two VERY nice goals for the Red Wings to open the scoring, but the Red Wings could not dent Arturs Silovs in the second half of the game, despite out-shooting Pittsburgh 7-6 over the final 28:12.

This was also a very penalty-happy game, with Detroit taking 7 penalties and Pittsburgh taking 6.

All of that being said, in a game that means nothing in terms of the standings and very little other than watching the team’s prospects compete for jobs, Emmitt Finnie had a hell of a game, playing 18:16; Leonard had 4 shots, as did try-out Justice Christensen, and Erik Gustafsson had 3 shots and 6 attempts; Carter Bear, Alexandre Doucet and Carson Bantle all had 4 hits; Travis Hamonc blocked 3 shots; and J.T. Compher went 11-and-7 (61%) on faceoffs. Gustafsson led the Wings in ice time at 21:16.

Overall, the kids looked okay–Nate Danielson admittedly looked a little gassed playing his 3rd game in 4 nights, while William Wallinder and Antti Tuomisto had their moments, they were out of position on the Penguins’ power play game-winner, and J.T. Compher, Jonatan Berggren and a couple other guys didn’t play like their jobs depended upon their effort, though Elmer Soderblom was impressive, and Dominik Shine was his plucky self.

Really, the highlight of the game was Gibson’s steady and sometimes spectacular play, and between his fine outing and the Wings’ youngsters showing fairly well, that’s what the team will take forward.

Tomorrow, the Wings’ “A Team” heads to Buffalo to take on the Sabres at 4 PM, and the game will air on DetroitRedWings.com.

1st period:

The first period started rather quietly as far as the scoresheet is concerned, but the Red Wings and Penguins’ young rosters crashed and banged pretty heavily in the corners of both ends of the rink, with Detroit enjoying a territorial advantage early on.

Penalty: Alexandre Doucet went for high-sticking at 8:35. 2-minute penalty. PK for Detroit.

The PK’s structure looked very good, and when Novak got loose in the slot, Gibson made a huge save to keep the game even at zeroes.

Detroit ultimately killed the penalty, but the shots went from 5-1 Detroit to 6-5 Detroit in a very short period of time.

GOAL: However, Alexandre Doucet made a really nice defensive play at center ice to poke the puck away from the Pens as all 5 players were skating up the gut, and John Leonard picked the puck up, raced in left side on Tristan Jarry, and Leonard ripped the puck top shelf at 13:38. Leonard from Doucet at 13:38 1st. Detroit 1, Pittsburgh 0.

Not surprisingly, the Leonard-Finnie-Doucet line was willing to crash and bang and go to the front of the net to generate all sorts of chaos throughout the 1st period, and that could very well be a fine line for Grand Rapids in the first half of the season.

Penalty: And Jack St. Ivany hacked Antti Tuomisto from behind at 17:57, sitting for tripping…

GOAL: And John Leonard ripped a 55-footer toward the goal, with Sheldon Dries screening, and the puck eluded Tristan Jarry for a 2-0 lead at 18:20. Leonard, assisted from Wallinder and Danielson at 18:20. 2-0 Detroit.

Although I can’t embed it, another John, John Gibson, made some spectacular saves for Detroit as well. He stopped 9 of 9 Pittsburgh shots in the 1st.

2nd period: The Pens really charged out in the 2nd period, but the Red Wings were pretty tough on the puck as well…

GOAL: But Connor Dewar took a tremendous pass from St. Ivany and ripped a high backhand shot through Erik Gustafsson’s partial screen and over John Gibson’s glove to make it 2-1. Dewar from St. Ivany and Dumba at 2:32 of the 2nd period. 2-1 Detroit.

Penalty: Luckily for the Red Wings, Elmer Soderblom drew a tripping penalty on Valtteri Puustinen at 4:21 of the 2nd, affording Detroit a power play.

The Red Wings accomplished very little on the PP, but Carter Bear shined as a puck-retriever on the point with Erik Gustafsson…

Penalty: The Pens hit the goalpost behind Gibson at about the 7-minute mark…And then Tomasino ran Gibson at 7:20, taking a minor for goaltender interference because he ran all over Gibson, who held Tomasino until the Red Wings’ cavalry arrived…angry. Much pushing and shoving was had. John Leonard got a roughing minor as well, so it was a 4-on-4.

The Wings looked like a team that had lost its way, and when John Gibson exited at 11:48 of the 2nd, relieved by Michal Postava, Gibson had stopped 12 of 13 shots. Arturs Silovs relieved Tristan Jarry.

Penalty: Then Austin Watson took an unwise penalty for cross-checking two Penguins players on the forecheck at 14:13, affording Pittsburgh another power play as their 2nd period surge continued.

Penalty: Bafflingly, Carter Bear got called for holding at 16:19 while J.T. Compher was spun around in the slot, so Detroit headed back to the PK.

Detroit killed the second penalty with less fanfare than the first, but Pittsburgh was out-shooting Detroit 6-3 for the period at 19:00 of the 2nd…And that’s how things would end.

3rd period: The Red Wings came out in the 3rd with more purpose and a lot more “oomph,”

FIGHT: Carson Bantle then clipped Connor Dewar in the head, and both players were assessed 2-and-5 penalties…because the two fought a short but spirited bout, with Bantle getting the take-down.

GOAL: And Robby Fabbri scored off a very chaotic set of attempts from Finnie, Leonard and Doucet to play defense with Christensen and Hamonic absent from their positions, with Fabbri scoring from Huglen and Puustinen at 4:46 of the 3rd. 2-2 tie.

The Red Wings continued to look scattershot in terms of both their fit, finish and execution, and Michal Postava was stopping his share of pucks as the Wings got backed in as wave after wave of Penguins players attacked, with Detroit’s own waves of attack being parried away by the Pens’ defense.

Penalty: And then Justice Christensen headed to the box at 9:30 for tripping, affording Pittsburgh a power play…

GOAL: And Tomasino took a slot pass from Filip Halinder and Thomas Novak, sneaking between William Wallinder and Antti Tuomisto to jab a slot shot through Michal Postava at 9:54. PPG Pittsburgh. Penguins 3, Detroit 2.

Elmer Soderblom at least made a gorgeous tip of a William Wallinder shot with about 6:50 left in regulation, and Arturs Silovs made a nice stop sliding to his right but catching with his left glove.

Detroit was actually out-shooting Pittsburgh 7-4 with 4:42 left in the 3rd, but Postava had given up 2 goals on 6 shots, as opposed to Gibson’s 13 stops on 14 shots.

PENALTY: Ryan Graves got only 2 minutes for boarding at 15:43 after slamming Sheldon Dries into the boards numbers first…it should have been a major penalty.

Pulled goaltender: The Red Wings pulled Michal Postava with 2:19 left in the 3rd period. Detroit went up 6 men to 5 for the Penguins.

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!