Red Wings close preseason with 4-2 loss to Blue Jackets
Detroit rallied from three goals down in the third period but fell to Columbus in its final tune-up before Friday's opener against the Rangers.
Detroit's preseason ended with a late push that came up short. The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Red Wings 4-2 at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night.
The Red Wings outshot Columbus 13-8 in the first period and still trailed 2-0. Charlie Coyle tapped in a power-play goal at the doorstep at 14:40, and Valeri Nichushkin blasted a slap shot off a Detroit turnover in the defensive zone at 18:44. Jack Williams made it 3-0 at 3:55 of the second, shooting from one knee in the slot off a Ryan Lomberg feed.
At 4:22 of the third, Alex DeBrincat went head first into the end boards after a cross-check from Carson Soucy. Lucas Raymond went after Soucy right away. DeBrincat skated to the bench and returned later in the period.
"There isn't a player on our team that can't respond in those situations," head coach Todd McLellan said. "We need that. It'll bond us."
Ben Chiarot broke up Jet Greaves' shutout bid at 6:39, sending a shot through traffic from the point after a Marco Kasper faceoff win. Michael Rasmussen cut it to 3-2 at 14:19 from the net front, with Kasper and Chiarot assisting. Cole Sillinger sealed it with an empty-net goal with 11 seconds left.
Kasper finished with two assists. John Gibson stopped 18 of 21 shots for Detroit, while Greaves made 31 saves for Columbus.
"We were a little bit sloppy with the puck," McLellan said. "Passing from A to B was sometimes A to B's feet, or two feet in front of them. Cost us a couple goals."
Kasper pointed to the same problem. "I thought we played really well on our forecheck, but then we turned a lot of pucks over and couldn't really connect passes," he said.
Detroit must submit its 23-man opening-night roster by 5 p.m. ET Monday, and McLellan cautioned that it may not stay put. "There could be paper moves. There could be moves made for waiver reasons," he said.
The Red Wings open the regular season Friday at home against the New York Rangers.
