On the 2nd half of a back-to-back and looking to get-right at home after a tough loss in New York, the Wings took on Calder probable Connor Bedard and a bunch of other dudes. Good teams take care of business against lesser teams, and that’s exactly what we saw last night.
1st Period
We got some action pretty quickly in this one. The game opened with Berggren taking a penalty within the first two minutes, but the boys weren’t gonna let that derail a good start. Bedard is credited with a giveaway on a pass attempt around the back boards on the Chicago Powerplay that went to nobody in particular. Walman ends up with it, and breaks out Copp at the top of our defensive zone. Compher rushes with him, and even though 3 B-Hawks are back they’re so out of position that it acts as a 2-on-1 for us. The lone Blackhawk really in a position to do much, Korchinski, is caught daydreaming instead of defending the pass and Copp hits Compher for an easy chip-in over Mrazek’s glove. It’s a shortie for a 1-0 lead.
But with the penalty to Berggren still active, the Blackhawks would get it right back. Sliding to the right side of the crease to stop Bedard, Lyon doesn’t put the brakes on and slides out of the crease and out of position. Bedard recovers his own rebound and starts to go behind the net, but tosses a no-look pass between Lyon and the net before he gets isolated between the net and the boards. Somehow that puck finds Lukas Reichel, who can’t miss the open net and knots it at 1s.
That’s not how a get-right game is supposed to know, and Jake Walman was out to correct it. Intercepting Chicago’s cycle behind the boards, Walman hits Fabbri for a zone exit. Fabs carries into the offensive zone with Copp on his left to draw a defender. With a little space, Fabbri dipsy-doodles around the defender and pops a shot over Mrazek’s glove to restore the 1-goal lead halfway thru the period.
2nd Period
After going comfortably on cruise control to end the 1st, the Wings didn’t take long to get back up to speed in the middle frame. About 5 minutes in, Raymond fed a speeding DeBrincat for a point-blank opportunity. Mrazek shut the door and the defender toppled DeBrincat, but that chaos led to a wide open net and a loose puck. Ben Chiarot somehow found himself by the crease and had an easy put-away to push the Wings up 3-1.
The boys were ready to put this one to bed and could feel it. With Gostisbehere drawing a hooking penalty, they had the perfect opportunity. Cycling around the zone, Raymond finally gets an opportunity to create some chaos from the close point by firing a pass almost the full length of the zone to Perron at the top face-off dot. With Mrazek and the entire Chicago PK unit shifting hard, Perron whips a pass to Compher at the goal mouth behind Mrazek. Keeping his stick on the ice, and with the Blackhawks trying to counter their movement from Raymond’s pass, all Compher has to do is hold position as Perron’s pass perfectly deflects off his stick blade and into a wide open net.
Apart from some fireworks between Kostin and Connor Murphy, from here on the Wings were largely just killing whatever hope Chicago may have had to get back in this game.
3rd Period
With the Red Wings fully in control of this one, it was a lot of shut-down hockey for the 3rd. Just to make sure the Blackhawks got the message, Fabbri would tack on one more about half-way thru the period. On the man advantage, Seider hits Sprong in the middle of the ice with a pass that the new #17 sent on-net. Sprong’s low shot is saved, but the rebound off Mrazek’s leg pad creates chaos. With everyone scrambling for the puck, it skitters over to Fabbri who has a wide open net. I’m honestly amazed at how quickly he reacts to the incoming puck, tapping it into the net for a 5-1 lead with zero hesitation or handling. It’s a Powerplay goal and one more nail in an already shut Blackhawks coffin.
With about 9 minutes left and a 4-goal lead, the Wings go back to cruise control and shut the rest of this game down. It’s a game we should have won, felt like we should win, and did win. Business handled.
Takeaways
I didn’t talk about him much in the recap so I want to mention him first and foremost here. ALEXANDER AUGUSTUS LYON. I’m not gonna say he stood on his head all night, but this was another 30+ save performance for him. Apart from being out of position on the lone Blackhawks goal, he handled every save he should have. The defense did a good job of keeping the Blackhawks from getting quality chances, but Lyon did his part too without making anything fancier or more difficult than it needed to be. He’s faced some slumping teams with the wins over New Jersey, Minnesota, and now Chicago… but he also looked good in his debut against the Leafs. It’s time to let us see Lyon facing some tougher teams. If he can keep this kind of poise and performance, I’m going to be very excited about the rest of this season.
Can we talk about Compher now? I wanna talk about Compher. Mostly, I want to talk about how good he’s looked filling in at 1C with Larkin out. I’m not saying he’s better than Larkin, or even as good, but he’s absolutely been capable and whatever line he’s on keeps showing up on the scoresheet. All the haters from this summer can, respectfully, stuff it.
Next up: Montreal on Saturday night.
LGRW
