Just hours after being called up from the Grand Rapids Griffins, Tomas Tatar scored his first NHL goal in his first career game to lift the Detroit Red Wings into a tie with the New York Islanders. The Islanders would spoil the moment, however, going on to defeat the Red Wings 4-3 in overtime.
Tatar’s deflection in the slot off a Darren Helm shot got past Dwayne Roloson to tie the game at three with 9:42 remaining in regulation.
The Islanders had taken the lead on three consecutive goals off of faceoff wins in the Detroit zone.
With 6:38 remaining in the first, John Tavares won a draw back to Andrew MacDonald for a shot from the blue line that was tipped by Matt Moulson. Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard made the initial stop but defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom inadvertently knocked the puck past him.
Tavares made it 2-1 with just 3 seconds remaining in the opening period. Zenon Konopka won a draw back to Bruno Gervais at the point. Gervais’ shot was knocked down on the way to the net but Tavares was there to backhand the loose puck past Howard.
Konopka won the faceoff that led to a Jesse Joensuu goal with 4:47 left in the second period, as well.
Konopka drew the puck back and Matt Martin made a diving play to push it across to Milan Jurcina at the right point. Jurcina’s shot was deflected by Joensuu to make it 3-1.
Valtteri Filppula made it 3-2 with 9 seconds remaining in the middle frame. Lidstrom’s shot from the blue line was stopped by Roloson and Darren Helm’s rebound chance hit the post and deflected into the air. Filppula gloved down the puck fired it into the open net with Roloson sprawled out on the ice.
Johan Franzen had opened the game’s scoring with 8:08 left in the first when his shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle slipped past Roloson.
The Red Wings finished the night without a power play goal on five tries with the extra attacker. The Islanders had only two tries and scored on both.
Howard made 19 saves on 23 shots. Roloson stopped 31 of 34 Detroit chances.
Tatar was in the lineup to replace Patrick Eaves, who was out with an upper-body injury.
