Red Wings-Blues Tweetcap: Detroit fine-tunes a 5-2 win in St. Louis

The Red Wings hit the 10-game mark in St. Louis on Tuesday night, hoping to improve upon their 6-and-3 record by sweeping their home-and-home series against a St. Louis Blues team which would play without the services of injured forwards Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours.

As the Wings embark upon a rough road trip which consists of 5 games to be played over the course of 8 nights, sometimes you’ve got to kick an opponent while they’re down, and that was the goal for the Wings in St. Louis.

On Tuesday night, the game started on a very sour note, as Brayden Schenn opened the scoring only 47 seconds into the 1st period, against the Larkin line, no less, but a fight by Travis Hamonic at 7:35 seemed to turn the momentum in Detroit’s way, and the Wings would score four consecutive goals–Ben Chiarot at 12:01 of the 1st, Alex DeBrincat at 19:24 on the power play, Larkin at 11:14 of the 2nd and Elmer Soderblom only 1:42 later in the 2nd–and while Jordan Kyrou’s 3rd period marker with only 4:24 left was a worrisome situation, Detroit killed a long 6-on-5 against, with Larkin scoring goal #8 (his 3rd point of the night) at 18:53 of the 3rd.

John Gibson stopped 20 of 22 shots for Detroit, and Lucas Raymond (2 assists) and Alex DeBrincat (1G, 1A) also had multi-point games…

But perhaps the biggest development of the game was the establishment of a big, steady fourth line in Elmer Soderblom, Michael Rasmussen and James van Riemsdyk, who played heavy, literally and figuratively.

4 more games in 4 more cities over the course of the next 7 nights won’t be easy, but Detroit’s road trip started off on the “right note” in St. Louis.

PREGAME: Jordan Binnington and John Gibson lead their respective teams out onto the ice at the Enterprise Center…

The Hockey News’s Lou Korac took note of the Blues’ warmup lines…

Because the Blues only post their starters…

And the Red Wings posted their lineup closer to game time:

1ST PERIOD: The teams dressed the following starters and lineups:

The game didn’t start until 8:24 PM as it was part of the ESPN “Frozen Frenzy,” and

GOAL: Only 47 seconds into the game, St. Louis established a cycle against the Larkin line, and Buchnevich sent a cross-ice pass to Broberg at the blueline, he ripped a shot off John Gibson’s pads, and Brayden Schenn chipped the rebound into the net.

St. Louis 1, Detroit 0: Schenn (2) from Parayko (5) and Broberg (2) at 47 seconds of the 1st period.

Detroit did not start well, with two rough shifts from the Larkin line, and Gibson had to stop 4 shots in the game’s first 5 minutes–most of the scoring chance variety–and Detroit was able to generate a single shot over the first seven minutes of play.

FIGHT: Travis Hamonic tossed mitts with Blues captain Brayden Schenn, scrapping heavily. Hamonic’s jersey was pulled over top of his head, but he kept in it. Both players sat for 5-minute fighting majors at 7:35 of the 1st.

The puck moves faster than players can skate, and the Blues utilized this fact to make up for a lack of foot speed as compared with the Red Wings. Their puck movement was clear and crisp, and Detroit sort of bumbled and fumbled.

Alex DeBrincat did send a ripper in on Binnington, who was without his stick, short of 10 minutes into the 1st, and Binnington made a fine stop.

Detroit just didn’t have a whole lot of defensive structure in their own zone, and that led to some frantic plays and frazzled funk as St. Louis owned the puck at times…

GOAL: At 12:01 of the 1st, off two very good Marco Kasper checks, Alex DeBrincat pulled the puck back to the point, where Ben Chiarot ripped the puck on goal, and the puck went off Alex Faulk to tie the game at 1-1.

St. Louis 1, Detroit 1. Chiarot (1) from Kasper (1) and DeBrincat (8) at 12:01 1st period.

By the 13-minute mark, the Wings had tied the Blues in shots 5-5, and the Wings led in shot attempts by a wide 17-9 margin.

PENALTY: Dylan Holloway was called for a free-hand-grab on Albert Johansson at 19:09 of the 1st period.

GOAL: Moritz Seider walked the blueline laterally to look for an opening, and he found Alex DeBrincat’s stick in front of Jordan Binnington, affording Detroit a tip shot goal at 19:24 of the 1st period.

St. Louis 1, Detroit 2: DeBrincat (2) from Seider (3) and Larkin (8) at 19:24 1st.

2ND PERIOD:

The Larkin line started vs. the Schenn line again, and again, the Schenn line almost scored, with a wraparound by Kyrou nearly finding its way past a diving John Gibson. Thankfully, the puck hit Gibson’s crest on his jersey and stayed out, in no small part thanks to Larkin tucking the puck back into his goaltender.

St. Louis got a fair number of “almost” chances early in the 2nd, taking a 9-7 shot lead and generating tons of zone time off of bad turnovers by the Red Wings in neutral ice…

But Binnington had to stop Finnie jabbing a pass from Larkin into the big Blues goaltender as well.

By 5:22 of the 2nd, St. Louis was out-shooting Detroit 10-8, and St. Louis was really blazing through neutral ice and buzzing in Detroit’s zone–but you could say the same for Detroit’s game, so it was speed vs. speed, and trading chances, which coaches hate.

PENALTY: Nathan Walker popped Marco Kasper in the face with a high stick at 8:13 of the 2nd, affording Detroit a power play.

The power play was downright elegant in terms of the Red Wings’ tic-tac-toe passing, Dylan Larkin had a wraparound stopped by Binnington, and Seider fanned on an amazing opportunity, but Detroit could not convert.

GOAL: Off a Dylan Larkin faceoff win, Lucas Raymond won a puck battle back to Simon Edvinsson, his shot-pass went right to Dylan Larkin, and Larkin ripped a quickie through Binnington to give Detroit a 3-1 lead at 11:14.

St. Louis 1, Detroit 3: Larkin (7) from Edvinsson (1) and Raymond (5) at 11:14 2nd period.

GOAL: James van Riemsdyk tapped a board pass from the right wing half boards down low to Michael Rasmussen, he reversed flow and chipped the puck out to the slot, and Elmer Soderblom tapped the puck in past Binnington to make it 4-1.

St. Louis 1, Detroit 4: Soderblom (1) from Rasmussen (2) and van Riemsdyk (1) at 12:56 2nd period.

PENALTY: Ben Chiarot regrettably got caught holding Bjugstad after Oskar Sundqvist rubbed out Axel Sandin Pellikka at 14:59. Chiarot sat for holding. Sundqvist got a talking-to by the entire Red Wings team.

Detroit killed the penalty with authority.

PENALTY: But Detroit was living dangerously, with Andrew Copp taking a penalty for high-sticking off a Blues cycle at 18:18 of the 2nd period.

Justin Faulk was stoned twice on the same breakaway by Gibson…

Dylan Larkin nearly got free of Faulk and battled his way to a shot in on Binnington with breakaway strength…

An Detroit would have 18 seconds left to kill in the 3rd period.

3RD PERIOD:

Detroit killed their penalty, and Andrew Copp was almost sprung from the penalty box with a breakaway pass by Lucas Raymond, but Colton Parayko tipped the puck away.

The game progressed with the teams trading checks more than chances, and St. Louis really got physical, hammering Detroit with every check they possibly could in every possible opportunity to be physical, looking to change the tide of the game.

In other words, it got dangerous out there for a bit.

Mason Appleton nearly gave Marco Kasper a goal-scoring pass…

The Big Fourth Line of Soderblom, Rasmussen and Appleton cycled masterfully alongside Edvinsson and Seider…

And Emmitt Finnie chipped the puck into the goal with his hand at 10:32, which happens to not count.

Detroit also held the Blues to no shots on Gibson until 6:49 remained in the 3rd period (that’s 13:11 of elapsed time)…

GOAL: However, Moritz Seider gave the puck away on a bad turnover to Pius Suter, and he sent the puck to Jordan Kyrou, who ripped a shot over John Gibson’s shoulder to make it 4-2 at 15:35 of the 3rd.

St. Louis 2, Detroit 4: Kyrou (4) from Suter (2) at 15:35.

The Blues pulled Binnington with 4:13 remaining as well…so the Wings were giving St. Louis too much to work with late in a game that should have been put away…

Detroit did a fine job of keeping the Blues to the perimeter and away from the slot, for the most part, and…

GOAL: Lucas Raymond sent a pass to Dylan Larkin which was deposited in the empty net at 18:53 to make it 5-2 DETROIT.

St. Louis 2, Detroit 5: Larkin (8) from Raymond (6) at 18:53 3rd, empty net.

STATISTICS: 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!