Nate Danielson scored his first NHL goal and added an assist in 4-2 win over Seattle.
Nate Danielson scored his first NHL goal and added an assist in 4-2 win over Seattle.
Detroit — The Red Wings are in first place and it’s in large part because of the youngsters.
Nate Danielson scored his first NHL goal and had an assist, Emmitt Finnie scored a power-play goal (with Danielson assisting) and Axel Sandin-Pellikka had an assist Tuesday as the Wings defeated Seattle, 4-2, and moved into sole possession of first place of the Atlantic Division at, essentially, the quarter-pole of the NHL season.
The Wings (12-7-1, 25 points) moved a point ahead of Boston and two points ahead of Montreal.
Danielson had a jaw-dropping second period. He scored his first NHL goal at 2:04 of the first period, after Sandin-Pellikka’s point shot hit off Mason Appleton on the way to the net, then glanced off Danielson and into the net, Danielson credited for his first goal.
“It wasn’t the prettiest one but they all count,” said Danielson of his first goal. “I felt it hit off my leg. I just kind of looked at Axe and asked him and started to jump and down. It’s exciting.”
A few minutes later, Danielson almost had his second goal, on a nifty drive to the net. But Finnie was barely offside, as Seattle challenged the goal and won.
“He scored two and one is a beauty and the ugly one counts,” coach Todd McLellan said of Danielson’s goal scoring. “But the puck will still go up on the wall, and he can lie to everyone 20 years from now that went end to end. It won’t matter.”
Danielson then capped his eventful period with his first NHL assist, finding Finnie alone in the slot and Finnie quickly snapping his fifth goal and ending a personal 10-game point drought. The goal put the Wings ahead 3-2, minutes after Seattle had just tied the game.
“I just told him I’d be made at him if he didn’t score that one,” said Danielson, on what he told Finnie after the offside play took away his goal earlier. “He made up for it.”
BOX SCORE: Red Wings 4, Kraken 2
It was quite a night overall for the Wings’ rookies, who’ve made such a positive impression through 20 games.
“The three of them, four because have to include Brands (Michael Brandsegg-Nygard), he was here for some of it, they’ve done a real good job,” McLellan said. “We’re constantly encouraging them to expand their game a little bit. But we’re also pushing them. Nights like tonight, they have those young legs and they have to provide that energy, and they’re doing a good job of it.”
Danielson, in only his fourth NHL game, has already made an impression on McLellan, who felt Danielson was likely going to make the opening night roster if not for an injury late in the preseason. Danielson, said McLellan, is earning the trust of the coaching staff.
“He wants to score like everybody else, but he’s approaching it methodically and the right way,” McLellan said. “I don’t hesitate to put him on the ice at all. He can take care of himself and his teammates, he’s been trained really well on both sides of the puck, which is a good thing.”
This was a choppy game, with no real flow to it. The Wings felt Danielson and Finnie gave them a jolt when they needed it, especially in the second period.
“Those kids took over and they started to push it,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “They were rolling and skating and using their legs. When a season like this, when you play a lot of games in a short period of time, it’ll be hard on them. But when they find their legs like that in games, it’s going to be huge for our team.”
Lucas Raymond opened the Wings’ scoring with his sixth goal, and 10th point in the last five games. Larkin capped the scoring with an empty net goal, his 12th goal (and 600th NHL point).
“It’s not the prettiest goal for a milestone, but I credit my teammates, the coaches and the training staff here, it’s special every day,” Larkin said. “When you hit certain milestones on a win, and we move into first place, that’s important.”
McLellan felt the Wings persevered through the game, though there was so little flow.
“It was a tough game, there was no rhythm in the game at all,” McLellan said. “It was scrambly after two periods. We had 45 faceoffs (through two periods), we had the delay (on Danielson’s would be goal) and throw in all the television timeouts, it just didn’t feel like there was any rhythm.
“The players had to stay focused and on task. It was the type of game that whoever was going to score next was going to win because there wasn’t much offense at all, and our guys did a good job of getting that goal, staying in the game, and then in the third (period) when it became a real game, we managed it well.”
Jordan Eberle (power play) and Ryker Evans had second-period goals for Seattle (9-5-5), who the Wings limited to five shots in the third period.
“Low drama,” said Larkin of the third period. “We kept it to the outside and we were really good on faceoffs, it felt like we won some big ones and the important ones, and we were able to exit the zone. I really liked that (third) period out of our guys, a mature period.”
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
@tkulfan
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