The Detroit Red Wings opened their preseason with a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers less than 24 hours after closing training camp.
The Wings’ possible fourth line of Kris Draper, Justin Abdelkader and Patrick Eaves came through Wednesday night, factoring in on two of the three goals as Detroit rallied after trailing 1-0.
Following a slow first period, James Van Riemsdyk put the Flyers on the board at 3:26 of the second, breaking in all alone to beat Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard after a Tomas Holmstrom turnover.
Draper evened things up 6:10 later, banging the rebound of a Brian Rafalski chance past Philadelphia goalie Ray Emery.
Abdelkader set up the Wings’ second goal with 1:52 left in the second period. Abdelkader grabbed a loose puck behind the Flyers net and sent it out to Jamie Tardif for a one-timer past Emery.
Jeremy Williams finished off the game’s scoring at 3:35 of the third period, scoring on Philadelphia’s Brian Boucher.
Aside from the slow start, the other disappointing stat for the Wings was a power play that went 0-7 on the night, including two four minute man advantages.
Howard stopped six of the seven shots he faced in just over 30 minutes of play. Daniel Larsson made fourteen saves over the remainder of the game.
In addition to scoring the Wings’ second goal, Tardif also fought Ian Laperriere early in the third period.
