The Wings came out shooting but were down 2-0 after the first despite outshooting the Hurricanes 16-4.
The Hurricanes scored three goals in the third period, including an empty-net goal.
Next up for the Wings is a Saturday afternoon match-up at 4 p.m. with the Chicago Blackhawks while the Hurricanes take on the New York Rangers at 3:30 p.m.
1. Dominik Shine: Shine, a native of Pinckney and a Northern Michigan University product, scored both of the Wings' goals in the second period. The first was assisted by Michael Rasmussen, the Wings' first-round pick, ninth overall, in this past summer's draft, and by Pat McCarron, a free-agent invite. Shine finished with four shots on goal and was plus-1.
Quotable: "It's a huge deal to me. Just seeing the Wings logo in my locker today when I walked in, it was something that I will never forget. Even though it's just a prospect tournament, it was really special to me." - Shine, on being a Michigan kid playing for the Wings in this tournament
2. Evgeny Svechnikov: Before the game, Grand Rapids Griffins coach Todd Nelson had mentioned that Svechnikov had looked dominant in the two practices the team had and he was looking forward to seeing him in the game. Svechnikov played on a line with center Axel Holmstrom and Dylan Sadowy. Svechnikov had two excellent early scoring chances but like the rest of the team, was unable to bury them. He finished with three shots.
Quotable: "Tough one. We got plenty of shots the first period, it just went on their side of the bench, those goals. It's all right. We just stick with it and come out the second period, got our goals, but we didn't get enough. Tough loss." - Svechnikov
3. Learning process: With teams playing four games in five days and limited practice time, it's a challenge for the coaches to teach the players the systems. There was some confusion at times, leading to odd-man rushes for the Hurricanes, including on their third goal in the second period, when Nicolas Roy scored on a 3-on-0 chance.
Quotable: "I got a lot of teaching to do. That's normal for a first game. We're trying to find line combinations, defense pairings. We're going to have a different look on defense tomorrow with different pairings. We're going to have maybe a different look up front. I thought Axel's line played really strong, especially at the start. I liked Rasmussen tonight. I thought their line with Shine and (Givani) Smith, they hemmed them into the zone quite a few times, they got two goals, got rewarded. I thought Turge (Dominic Turgeon), (Luke) Esposito and (Lane) Zablocki were fine. I saw a lot of good things tonight but I saw a lot of things that we have to work on. This tournament, you can't really fix these things overnight. It takes time to break some of these players' habits. I thought Matej Machovsky, we hung him out to dry a few times but I think he'd like to have a couple back. So all in all, there was the good, the bad and the ugly, come to think of it. There were some really good things, some bad things happened and some ugly things." - Nelson
