The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 last night for their second win in a row. They came out to a flying start with 19-year-old Michael Rasmussen scoring the first goal of his career to open the scoring. Detroit scored a total of three goals in the first period to what I’m sure they thought would be an easy victory. But as the 2018 Red Wings have taught us so far this season, nothing was easy.
Dylan Larkin played with the most energy all night. He scored two goals and won 56 percent of the face offs he took. This did not stop the Blue Jackets from fighting back in the second period.
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More concerning is the fact that on top of the losses of Andreas Athanasiou and Frans Nielsen, Thomas Vanek left the game after only four shifts with a lower body injury. The Wings will have to call up two forwards from Grand Rapids as head coach Jeff Blashill said that Vanek will be out for two to three weeks.
The Jackets were able to scrap all the way back to tie the score as Pierre-Luc Dubois beat goaltender Jimmy Howard on what most would consider being a soft goal. This did not deter the struggling Red Wings, who saved their best period for the third. Tyler Bertuzzi scored a game-winning goal off of Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky, who replaced Joonas Korpisalo after only 13 1/2 minutes.
It will be interesting to see if the Red Wings can continue to play well in their next game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night as they look to win their third straight game.
Andrew covers the NHL’s Atlantic Division for Full Press Coverage. Follow Andrew on Twitter at @walsha89.
