Cory Emmerton scored the only goal for the Red Wings on Sunday as Detroit dropped a 7-1 decision to the Chicago Blackhawks in an Easter matinee matchup.
Emmerton ended Chicago netminder Corey Crawford’s shutout with 33 seconds remaining in regulation, gathering in the rebound of a Brian Lashoff shot and snapping a shot from the right faceoff circle past Crawford.
While the game ended on a positive note, it started poorly for Detroit and continued that way for the first 57 minutes of play.
Jeremy Morin opened the game’s scoring just 2:33 into the first. A Chicago shot wide of the net came off the back boards and off a skate, deflecting in front of Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard. Howard attempted to freeze the puck but couldn’t hold it, with Morin collecting it and throwing a shot past him.
Brandon Saad made it 2-0 at 3:21 of the period, faking out Howard after having been left all alone in the right circle to take a pass from Michael Frolik.
At 4:12, Jakub Kindl mishandled the puck at the side of the net and backhanded it in behind Howard for a goal credited to Dave Bolland.
The start of the second period wasn’t much better than the start of the first for Detroit, with Chicago scoring a pair of goals eight seconds apart in the first four minutes.
Off a giveaway by Jordin Tootoo at the Chicago blueline, Saad carried the puck down the left wing and into the corner before feeding Jonathan Toews in the slot for a snap past Howard, making it 4-0 and chasing the Detroit netminder in favor of Jonas Gustavsson.
Gustavsson didn’t fare any better, as Saad collected a deflected feed from Niklas Hjalmarsson in the right circle and beat him five hole to make it 5-0.
Bolland added a second goal at 7:55 of the third period, snapping a shot from the right circle past Gustavsson. Nick Leddy did nearly the same thing to make it 7-0 with 3:39 remaining.
Howard ended up with ten saves on 14 shots in 23:52, taking the loss. Gustavsson made nine saves on 12 shots in the remaining 36:08. Crawford stopped 33 of 34 Detroit chances.
Neither team scored a power play goal. The Red Wings had the only two attempts of the game with the extra skater.
The Red Wings lost forward Mikael Samuelsson to an unspecified upper-body injury after the second period. Samuelsson was playing just his third game of the season, having missed all but the first two to various injuries… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg missed the game with a groin injury. He is expected to also miss Monday’s matchup with the Colorado Avalanche… Gustav Nyquist was the healthy scratch up front for Detroit… Danny DeKeyser was technically not a healthy scratch for the Red Wings, as his contract was not yet official as of game time… After the game the Red Wings sent Lashoff back to the Grand Rapids Griffins to make room on the roster for DeKeyser and Carlo Colaiacovo, who is returning from a conditioning stint with the Griffins. Lashoff is expected back with the Red Wings after the NHL’s trade deadline passes on Wednesday.
