Red Wings down Avalanche in Stadium Series with late Richards goal

Detroit Red Wings forward Brad Richards has often held a penchant for the dramatic. A winner of two Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe Trophy, Richards seems to elevate his game in big moments.

He did so again Saturday, scoring the game-winning goal with one minute remaining in a 5-3 victory in the Wings’ Stadium Series game against the Colorado Avalanche. 

Richards chipped a rebound off a Niklas Kronwall shot over Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov to give his team the win in front of a crowd of 50,095 at Coors Field in Denver.

Red Wings goaltender Petr Mrazek stopped 24 of 27 shots on goal in the win. Varlamov stopped 23 of 27 Detroit shots on goal in the loss.

After a quick start and a sluggish second period, both teams opened up in a big way in the third period. As temperatures cooled from 65 degrees at puck drop the pace quickened.  

Just 1:27 into the third period, Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist fired a blind backhand on the Colorado net that knotted the game at 2-2.

With a little over six minutes to play, Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader put the Red Wings up 3-2 after taking a feed from Darren Helm in front.

Then Avs forward Alex Tanguay tied the game at 3-3 off a scrum in front of Mrazek just 14 seconds later. Tanguay was on Colorado’s last Stanley Cup team and was the only link in the game to the rivalry years between the two teams. 

Both teams didn’t score in the second period as they were locked in a defensive battle. The Red Wings and the Avalanche both fired just four shots on goal.

Near the end of the first period, Colorado forward Blake Comeau found a trailing Tyson Barrie who deked around the Detroit defense and fired a blast past Mrazek to make the game 2-1

At the 7:44 mark of the first, young Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon fired a wrist shot past Mrazek. This knotted the game at 1-1.

Just 5:07 into the first period, Red Wings forward Tomas Tatar scored a goal off a scrum in front to put the game at 1-0 in favor of Detroit.

The two teams were selected in part because of their historic rivalry from a span that stretched from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s. Both those teams played in the same conference and often had to go through one another to get to the Stanley Cup Final. The Red Wings are now in the Eastern Conference and the Avalanche play in the Western Conference. They only play each other twice per-year.

This game didn’t have the same type of nastiness as those squads. The only real moment that involved such an instance came late in the first period when Red Wings forward Pavel Dastyuk and Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog tussled. Datsyuk received a roughing penalty and Landeskog was called for holding the stick.

This was Detroit’s third NHL regular season outdoor game. It was Colorado’s first. 

With the loss, the Avalanche stayed at 68 points on the year, just four ahead of the Minnesota Wild for the final Western Conference Wild Card spot. The Red Wings have 73 points, five ahead of of the Philadelphia Flyers for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. 

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