#LGRW Final: Red Wings fall in series opener against Blackhawks, 4-1

CHICAGO --Dylan Larkin scored his third goal of the season and Thomas Greiss made 24 saves, but the Chicago Blackhawks scored a pair of goals with the man advantage and defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1, at the United Center on Friday night.

For the third straight series to start the season, Detroit fell in the opener as Chicago got its first win of the season in its home opener. The Red Wings and Blackhawks will finish their series on Sunday afternoon from the United Center.
"I thought our start was good, we just didn't get the puck past the goalie," Larkin said. "We made it a little too easy on him to get comfortable there to start. I thought we forced it too much, and we gave them too much needless turnovers. I liked our start. We knew going in that it's not a normal year. We've got to be ready for the unexpected. A little adversity came our way, I thought we showed up, but we just didn't have it tonight."
Marc Staal picked up his first point with the Red Wings with the primary assist on the goal by Larkin, and Frans Nielsen also got an assist. Patrick Kane scored on the power play and added an assist while Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat each had two assists.

The Red Wings were buzzing to start the game, with Tyler Bertuzzi hitting the goal post a couple of minutes in, but the Blackhawks took advantage of a penalty on Valtteri Filppula. Kane scored after settling down a bouncing puck and beat Greiss at the 13:22 mark of the first period to make it 1-0.
Detroit outshot Chicago, 31-27, and had some power-play chances early in the second period but couldn't get the puck past Blackhawks goalie Kevin Lankinen while up a man, as Lankinen made 30 saves to notch his first win of his NHL career.
"I thought we took steps, certainly in that second Columbus game, of really playing the right way, and I thought we took a step backwards tonight in terms of playing the wrong way," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "We've just got to understand we can't play that way to have success, to win. Nobody can. It's not the right way to play, so we've got to make sure we do a better job of that."

Calvin de Haan extended the lead for the Blackhawks in the second period with a long slap shot that got by Greiss to make it 2-0, while Andrew Shaw made it 3-0 with another power-play goal in the third period.
Larkin scored by using his speed to race off the bench, pick up the puck in the offensive zone and patiently wait out Lankinen before finishing his wrister top shelf.
Mattias Janmark added an empty-net goal while the Blackhawks were shorthanded to wrap up the scoring.
Special teams was the difference in the game as the Red Wings finished 0-for-5 on the power play, while the Blackhawks were 2-for-5.
"We've got to put onus on the five guys out there and expect more. We've got to become a dangerous unit," Larkin said about the power play. "It's kind of a slow night and your power play's got to show up. I think that's the difference in the game tonight. Theirs did, ours didn't. We have to find a way to show up and put the puck in the net when we have the man advantage."
Darren Helm made his season debut and Christian Djoos made his Red Wings debut as the team played with 11 forwards and seven defensemen because Robby Fabbri, Adam Erne, Sam Gagner, Filip Zadina and Jon Merrill were all forced to miss the game because of COVID-19 protocols.
The Red Wings will be back on the ice in Chicago at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday for another matchup against the Blackhawks, as the Wings go for another series split and attempt to get back to .500.