The Columbus Blue Jackets established an early three-goal advantage and held on to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena. Charlie Coyle produced a goal and an assist to pace the visitors in the preseason matchup.
Coyle opened the scoring on the power play at 14:40 of the first period, directing a tip-in past Detroit goaltender John Gibson with assists from Kirill Marchenko and Zach Werenski. Columbus doubled the lead late in the frame when Valeri Nichushkin scored on a slap shot set up by Coyle. Jack Williams extended the advantage to 3-0 at 3:55 of the second period by converting a snap shot off feeds from Ryan Lomberg and Denton Mateychuk.
Detroit answered in the third period to narrow the gap. Ben Chiarot scored with a snap shot at 6:39 after receiving a pass from Marco Kasper. Michael Rasmussen brought the Red Wings within one goal at 14:19, beating Columbus goaltender Jet Greaves with a wrist shot assisted by Kasper and Chiarot. Cole Sillinger ended the rally by tipping in an empty-net goal at 19:49, assisted by Nichushkin and Sean Monahan.
Greaves earned the victory in net for the Blue Jackets by stopping 31 of 33 shots, aided by 26 blocked shots from his defense. Gibson took the loss for the Red Wings after turning aside 18 of 21 shots. Columbus finished 1 for 2 on the power play and successfully killed all four Detroit man advantages. Both teams return to game action on Tuesday, October 20, when Columbus hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit visits the Seattle Kraken.
