from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

“Very difficult 24 hours,” forward Dylan Larkin said. “First it was a tough night on the ice, which happens in this league. More importantly, we lost a friend, someone who really cared so much about everyone he met who was kind to him, he gave it back 1,000 times more.”

It wasn’t easy for the Wings to be at the rink Saturday, but they definitely showed some character.

“Last night wasn’t the way we wanted to play,” Larkin said. “We were a step late all over the ice and we knew that, we didn’t have to talk about it much. But I’m very proud of our guys, man to man, we all stepped up and played a way better game tonight.

“We care. The guys in there, we care. We care about each other and care about being Detroit Red Wings. We care about playing the right way.”

more, comments from Brome and Blashill too…

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 02/20/21 at 09:16 PM ET

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Dennis Cholowski’s blast from the right circle 1:05 into overtime on Saturday lifted the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 2-1 win over the Cleveland Monsters in their home opener at Van Andel Arena.

Winners of three in a row, the Griffins continued their penchant for scoring goals on the power play and in the latter stages of games. Both of their goals came when they had the man-advantage, giving them at least one in each of the season’s first five games and putting them 6-for-23 (26.1%) overall. In addition, seven of Grand Rapids’ 11 goals this season have now come after the second period.

The game was scoreless until 3:35 into the third period when Michael Rasmussen cashed in. From along the left boards just inside the blue line, Cholowski launched a shot that was tipped by Kyle Criscuolo on the way to the net. Brad Thiessen put his left pad on it, but Rasmussen pounced on the rebound and pushed a backhand inside the right post.

The lead lasted just over five minutes, as Ryan MacInnis sped in alone and slipped a backhand through Pat Nagle’s pads to forge another tie. Nagle slammed the door the rest of the way to improve to 2-1 with a 1.68 GAA and a 0.937 save percentage.

A slashing penalty to Nathan Gerbe with 44 seconds left in the third provided the Griffins with their sixth power play of the night and the opportunity they would use to end it overtime.

Notes
• This was the Griffins’ first home game in 346 days, dating to their 4-1 win over Iowa on March 11, 2020.
• Riley Barber, who pushed his team-high scoring streak to five games and point total to six (2-4—6) with the second assist on Cholowski’s game-winner, logged his 300th pro game.
• After feeding Cholowski for the overtime goal, Taro Hirose has three assists in two games since being reassigned from Detroit’s taxi squad.

Highlights

Interviews

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 02/20/21 at 09:32 PM ET

Weird that when the Wings win, there are only a few comments…

I thought thing Wings played a good game through Brome’s goal, and then the Panthers turned the gas on, and it took everything they had, including Bernier, to hold down the fort vs. a much superior team in Florida.  Best 2 way game Larkin has played all season, he was fantastic.

Really surprised Evengy didn’t get in last night, understand hedging bets on the back end not knowing what rust both Beiga and DDK had, and getting our better players extra shifts, this was an important game for the Wings to perform, they did.

Imagine if FLA wasn’t spending that cap space on Bob and on more forward depth or something wow.  I am going to bet some sort of deal with picks will accompany Bob to man the pipes in Seattle.

Posted by MurrayChadwick from YzerHolland2.0's pixie dust fueled bandwagon on 02/21/21 at 11:07 AM ET