Trending: Cholowski gets first goal in first NHL game

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings had a tough time in overtime last season and those woes continued on opening night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The always dangerous Artemi Panarin scored at 2:11 of overtime to give the Blue Jackets a 3-2 victory Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena.

Last season, the Red Wings were 3-12 in overtime. The only other team with double-digit overtime losses was the Buffalo Sabres, who were 5-10 in overtime. But in shootouts, the Wings were 5-1.
Dennis Cholowski and Tyler Bertuzzi (power play) scored for Detroit while Cam Atkinson (power play), Josh Anderson and Panarin (overtime) scored for Columbus.
Jimmy Howard made 36 saves while Joonas Korpisalo made 18.
The Wings are 0-0-1 while the Blue Jackets are 1-0.
Detroit will face the Los Angeles Kings on the road Sunday while Columbus hosts the Carolina Hurricanes Friday night.
1. Dylan Larkin/Gustav Nyquist: Larkin led the team in points last season with 63 and in assists with 47 and picked right up where he left off. At 7:46 of the second period, Larkin found Cholowski going to the net for his first career goal and at 16:13, Larkin got the primary assist on Tyler Bertuzzi's power-play goal, which tied the game at 2-2. Nyquist got the second assist on both goals. Larkin played 25 shifts for 17:28, had three shots, two hits, was 11-of-26 in face-offs and was plus-1. Nyquist played 22 shifts for 15:41, had two shots, a giveaway and was even.
Quotable: "I thought (Larkin) played his best game, including preseason. The more the man's game it is, the more compete matters, the more he shines because his competitiveness is great. I thought he did a good of trying to drive the train. He didn't get penalty kill time early but got more as it went along. His next step for me would be being great on the power play." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Dennis Cholowski: With just two veteran defensemen in the lineup in Danny DeKeyser and Trevor Daley, there was going to be pressure on the young defensemen -- Dennis Cholowski, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak. Cholowski was paired with DeKeyser but was facing the Blue Jackets' top players most of the night. At 7:46 of the second, Cholowski got a nice feed from Larkin and buried the puck top shelf past Columbus goaltender Joonas Korpisalo. Cholowski did have his rookie moments, taking a penalty for holding at 12:52 of the first. That penalty was quickly negated as the Blue Jackets' Artemi Panarin was called for tripping Daley 17 seconds later. Cholowski's parents, John and Natalie, brother, Frederick, aunt, Carrie Light, girlfriend, Brooke Kudirka, were all at Little Caesars Arena to see Cholowski's first NHL game - and first NHL goal. Cholowski finished with 28 shifts for 19:51, had one shot, one giveaway, two blocked shots and was even.
Quotable: "It means a ton. Every player dreams of scoring their first goal. It's kind of just a blur. I hardly remember it, to be honest. It just kind of happened so fast. It was just a wave of excitement. I saw (Larkin) look over his shoulder. I just yelled as loud as I could for the puck, because I was wide open. He made a great pass and I'm thankful that he made the pass." -- Cholowski

Quotable II: "I thought Dennis played a pretty good game. I thought the goal was nice. It was a real good job of jumping in the play and good finish. I thought he showed real good poise. He made a mistake that resulted in a goal but it didn't affect him, he just kept playing, so I thought he had a pretty good game. To me, it's a little bit of a young mistake, it's not understanding the clock, the guy's coming out of the box. A little bit of what we were trying to do too much tonight was look for a better shot. He had a shot, he should have took the shot he had, but that's part of the reality of growth of young players. What I liked about it, I think mental toughness is a big deal, and it didn't affect him. He just kept going." -- Blashill
3. Michael Rasmussen/Filip Hronek/Libor Sulak/Christoffer Ehn: Detroit's four other rookies who made their NHL debuts on Thursday acquitted themselves fairly well by all accounts. On the back end, defensemen Hronek and Sulak were steady, though it appeared Sulak began to tire as the game wore on. Sulak's total ice time was 18:26, including 2:43 on the penalty kill. He registered one shot on net, delivered five hits and had two turnovers. Hronek's ice time was 16:03, with 1:41 coming on the power play. He took one minor penalty for holding and had two blocked shots. Forward Michael Rasmussen used his big frame to position himself in front of the net and showed poise. Rasmussen's ice time was 12:06, with 1:32 on the power play. He had a shot on net, delivered two hits and gave the puck away twice. Ehn's ice time was 8:09 and he didn't hurt the Wings with his limited ice time. He had four hits, one takeaway and won 2-of-7 face-offs.
Quotable: "Whenever you can gain experience it's good. I think it was great for us, we all enjoyed it. It was good. As a group we've got to stay out of the box a little better. That kind of killed our momentum a little bit, but overall like I said, gaining experience was good, it was positive. The speed and stuff was pretty similar, everyone has such great sticks and such great gaps, so in that regard, it was different." -- Rasmussen

Quotable II: "They did good. They did really well in front of me. Obviously, they're young, there's going to be times where mistakes happen but for the most part, I thought they did a really good job." - Howard on Detroit's rookie defensemen
Quotable III: "I thought Ras played well. We didn't get tons of power-play time, where I think he can be real effective. I thought overall, he was physical, he was big, he was strong. I thought he had a good game. I like his game, I think it's a pro game. Libor got tired. He seemed to lose his poise. He's got to make sure that he keeps his poise, even as you start to breathe through your eyelids a little bit, which happens when you're stuck in your end. He's got to make sure he's doing a good job of staying poised in those situations. I thought Hronek had a great game. Him and Cholo were probably the two best. He did a real good job jumping in the play, of making little breakout passes, good job of being hard. He was out there enough against that heavy line, Dubinsky's line. It's a hard line to play against and I thought he did a good job. So those two would have stood out a step above. I'd say all had moments of good and moments of not great." -- Blashill