Fine debut for Vanek not enough for Wings

Thomas Vanek was hoping a change of scenery would help him forget and turnaround a dismal 2015-16 National Hockey League season.

If the opening contest for the Detroit Red Wings is any indication it will be onward and upward for the Austrian vet who joined the Wings this season as a Free Agent, as he scored the first two goals of the season for the Red Wings at Tampa Bay Thursday (Oct. 13) against the Lightning. While those goals did give the visitors a 2-0 first period cushion though it wasn’t enough as the home team struck back to tie the game at 3-3 in the middle period and then outscored its guest 3-1 in a wild third period for a 6-4 win.

Another new addition, Frans Nielsen, scored the third Wings’ goal and defenseman Danny DeKeyser scored his team’s only goal in the third while Petr Mrazek was beaten five times on 35 shots, the final one into an empty cage. Mike Green picked up a couple of assists in a losing effort as well.

In other games involving Midwest based teams on the same night: The Columbus Blue Jackets were doubled by the Boston Bruins 6-3; and the St. Louis Blues won its second game in the first 24 hours of the season with a 3-2 edge against the Minnesota Wild.

Bruins 6 at Blue Jackets3

A pair of non-playoff teams from last season squared off in Columbus and the host Blue Jackets dropped its home opener thanks to a five-point performance from World Cup Hero Brad Marchand of the Bruins.

The Jackets are hoping to avoid a dismal start which has derailed the team in each of the previous two seasons and actually got off to a strong start, carrying a 2-0 lead into the middle period thanks to goals from Alexander Wennberg and Cam Atkinson.

David Pastrnak got the Bruins on the board early in the second, but Seth Jones notched his first a short time later to restore a two goal cushion for the host. David Backes, making his debut for the Bruins scored twice in the second half of the period, both on feeds from Marchand though and teams were even at 3-3 heading to the final 20.

The final period was all Bruins as Marchand scored twice before Pastrnak added his second to round out the scoring into an empty net. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed five on 29 shots in the contest while Tuukka Rask handled 28 of 31.

Wild 2 at Blues 3

The Blues picked up its second win, taking its home opener 3-2 against the visiting Minnesota Wild.

Nail Yakupov, added to the Blues in a trade just a week prior enjoyed a nice opener for his team, scoring the goal that put the Blues in front 2-1 just past the halfway mark in the second period and then earning an assist on the game winner by Magnus Paajarvi who was inserted into the lineup after sitting out the opener as a healthy scratch in Chicago the previous night.

Alex Steen scored the other Blues goal, the only tally in the opening period. Ryan Suter scored an unassisted goal early in the second and Charlie Coyle‘s marker with 7:11 to play had the Wild within one.

Jake Allen, expected to carry a big load in goal for the Blues this season, collected his second victory, turning aside 19 of 21 Wild shots while Devan Dubnyk handled 28 of 31 in goal for the Wild.

Friday’s games

The lone game involving the Midwest will see the BlackHawks looking to shrug off its season opening loss to the Blues with a trip to Nashville for the Preds season and home opener.