RECAP: Detroit drops 4-2 decision at Chicago

CHICAGO -- Joe Veleno scored two goals for the Detroit Red Wings in a 4-2 preseason loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday night.

“We gave ourselves a chance,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “I think they probably won a few more battles. We didn’t give ourselves a full chance with the number of turnovers we had.”

Detroit trailed, 1-0, after the first period despite outshooting Chicago, 14-12.

“We came out a little flat and gave them some momentum,” Veleno said. “They got their first goal pretty early, but I thought we did a better job in the second of putting pucks behind them.”

Just 60 seconds into the second, Veleno finished a cross-ice pass from Jonatan Berggren to even the score, 1-1. Ben Chiarot, playing his preseason debut, recorded the secondary assist.  

The Blackhawks regained the lead, 2-1, at 15:30 of the middle frame, and went into the second intermission with a 22-17 shot advantage.

At 4:49 of the third, Veleno tied the game again after cutting to the slot and sending Klim Kostin’s feed past Chicago goalie Petr Mrazek for a give-and-go goal to make it 2-2. Justin Holl assisted on Veleno’s second tally of the night.

The Blackhawks responded on a power play at 9:59 to take a 3-2 lead, then scored an empty-net goal with 1:09 remaining to put the game away for good.

Red Wings goalie Ville Husso allowed one goal on 14 shots before being replaced midway through the second by professional tryout netminder Michael Hutchinson, who stopped 17 of 19 shots.

"I thought our young guys, who don’t have too much experience yet in this league, did a good job of holding their ground and fighting back," Veleno said. "We just need to bounce back from this one and move forward.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will continue its current three-game preseason road trip Wednesday night, visiting PPG Paints Arena to face the Pittsburgh Penguins.

QUOTABLE

Lalonde on dressing more inexperienced players Tuesday night

“It’s good. It’s opportunities for some of our inexperienced guys in a tougher situation, no different than what we faced at home with the some of the lines we faced. Some of our younger d-men had some experience against some of these top-caliber-type forwards."

Lalonde on Veleno

“I love the finish on both those plays. That’s a very good sign and good game from Joe. Had some looks and a big impact on the game, which was great.”

Veleno on his two-goal performance

“I felt good tonight. I think our line was clicking. We had some good chances and good o-zone time. We showed some flashes. Now we just got to keep going and be consistent here all throughout camp.”

Veleno on the pushback from Detroit’s younger players

“I thought we did a pretty good job of fighting back. They had pretty much their full lineup, a couple players missing."