In Detroit Thursday, the Little Caesars Arena was opened by the Red Wings with a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Anthony Manthascored the first regular season goal in the new digs for the Wings.
“That was an awesome feeling,” Mantha said. “All day, I had been thinking about how special it would be to get the first goal in this building, and then it happened.”
Jimmy Howardmade 37 saves in picking up the win for the Wings.
Dylan Larkinhad a goal and Henrik Zetterberg and Martin Frk scored after the Wild had knotted the game at 2-2.
“It’s deflating to battle back into the game and then let it get away again,” Boudreau said. “We took our foot off the gas, and hopefully we will learn from it.”
Joel Eriksson Ek and Chris Stewartscored for the Wild in the loss.
Two Wild goals were waved off in the first period for goalie interference.
Two of the Red Wings goals were off the power play while the Wild had issues on the special teams efforts.
“You have to win the special-teams battle to win games in this league,” Stewart said. “We didn’t score on the 5-on-3, and then we let them get two on theirs. That was huge.”
“They were the right calls,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Red Wings highlights]
Devan Dubnyk stopped 27 shots in taking the loss.
“The two power-play goals were obviously a big part of the game. We get down 5-on-3, and they take two shots [that] are going well wide and they end up in the net,” Dubnyk said.
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