Intra-squad Red/White game at the VanAndel arena, Sept 27, 2011. Shot for WOOD-TV
Team Red wins Wings scrimmage in GR. Filppula and Hudler had two goals each
Updated: Wednesday, 28 Sep 2011, 8:20 AM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 27 Sep 2011, 4:03 PM EDT
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Fans packed Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids Tuesday night to watch the Detroit Red Wings' Red & White preseason scrimmage; the last time was in 2007.
Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler each scored two goals in Team Red's 6-4 victory in front of 10,174 people.
The event was sponsored by Amway and Meijer, and featured both the Red Wings and Grand Rapids Griffins split into equal 20-player squads. The scrimmage was managed like a real NHL game that consisted of three 20-minute periods.
The first period ended without any goals.
But that wasn't the case in the second period, as the red light was lit up five times on the power play. Tomas Tatar netted a man-advantage goal for Team White to begin the scoring.
Moments later, Team Red had its second 5-on-3 opportunity, but unlike the first try, it managed to capitalize on this one, tying the score at 1 when Todd Bertuzzi (goal, assist) found the back of the net.
Team White got its crack at a two-man advantage and regained the lead, 2-1, when Pavel Datsyuk sent a centering pass to Henrik Zetterberg who fired a shot from the slot that beat Thomas McCollum. Nicklas Lidstrom also gained an assist.
Filppula scored his two goals, consecutively, 48 seconds apart to give the Red squad a 3-2 lead heading into the second intermission. Filppula also had an assist.
Grand Rapids Griffins forward Brent Raedeke and Hudler put Team Red up for good with consecutive goals in the third period.
Ian White and Trevor Parkes added third-period goals for Team White, who had a 38-33 advantage in shots on goal.
Datsyuk had two assists and Griffins forward Trevor Parkes had a goal and an assist in leading Team White. Defenseman Garnet Exelby had three assists for Team Red.
The two top Wings goaltenders -- Jimmy Howard (Team Red) and Ty Conklin (Team White) -- played 20 minutes each. Howard stopped 12 first-period shots, doubling those made by Conklin in the first period.
"It was a lot of fun," Howard said on
the Red Wings website. "It's good for us to get back to this side of the state and do some things like this because not only people in Detroit support us, but they also support us down here, too."
Jordan Pearce made 20 saves on 26 shots faced for Team White.
Team Red goalie Thomas McCollum made 16 saves on 20 shots in two periods of work.
The Wings' regular season begins Oct. 7 when the puck drops at 7 p.m. against the Ottawa Senators at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
