Veleno Scores Two, But Detroit Drops Game 1 of Prospect Tournament to Chicago
The Detroit Red Wings took on the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of the 2019 Traverse City Prospect Tournament on Friday night. The Blackhawks’ lineup featured 2019 first rounder Kirby Dach as well as stars at last year’s World Juniors, Philipp Kurashev and MacKenzie Entwistle. The Wings featured 2018 first rounders Filip Zadina and Joe Valeno as well as 2019-drafted defenseman Moritz Seider.
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Detroit took an early lead in the game as Ryan Kuffner snapped a shot past goaltender Alexis Gravel with 20 seconds left on an early power play. Seider assisted.
The momentum shifted shortly after however, as Chicago responded with four unanswered goals in the first period. Mikael Hakkarainen tied the game on a great cross-crease pass from MacKenzie Enwistle. Dennis Gilbert also assisted.
Dach scored on a breakaway just over a minute later, fooling goalie Kaden Fulcher with a forehand-backhand move. It was an impressive play for the newly drafted 18-year old, as he looked like a tournament veteran.
Entwistle snapped home the third goal at 12:33 of the period. Nicolas Beaudin assisted. Jack Ramsay continued the enslaught two minutes later as his shot from the left side trickled over the goal line.
Chicago’s four goals came on their first ten shots of the game.
It was not a good period by Detroit. Poor defense and poor coverage was the story and the backchecking needed more work as well.
Seider got hit high by Dach at the start of the second period. He was down on the ice for a bit, but did not leave the game. He would later get some revenge in the third, as he stood up Dach with a solid check.
The middle frame saw Detroit storm back. Jarid Lukosevicius scored a power play goal from the slot at the midway mark.
Two minutes later, Brandon Hagel misplayed the puck on a breakout attempt, and Joe Veleno stole the puck and scored. It was an opportunistic play and his good hockey sense and vision helped him.
Before the second ended Veleno scored again, on the Wings’ third power play goal. Zadina took a shot, retrieved the rebound and fed the puck to Veleno from behind the net.
The third period didn’t see any scoring as both teams tightened up their game.
In the overtime 3-on-3 that followed, it did not take long for Chicago’s Adam Boqvist to win it and take the early lead in the tournament.
Game 2 for Detroit is Saturday at 3:30.
Kevin Sporka
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