Trending: Sluggish Wings fall short in shootout, 4-3

DETROIT -- Although the Detroit Red Wings still have a lot of players on their preseason roster, the last thing they needed was for their third game in three nights to go to a shootout.
However, that is exactly what happened as the Wings pulled the goalie and scored with 1:43 left in the third to even the score with the Toronto Maple Leafs at 3-3.

No one scored in the five-minute overtime so the game went to a shootout. Jeremy Bracco had the lone shootout goal to give the Leafs a 4-3 preseason win.
Evgeny Svechnikov, Chris Terry and Givani Smith scored for the Wings.

Darren Archibald, Matt Read and Hudson Elynuik (power play) scored for the Maple Leafs.
Detroit goaltender Jonathan Bernier made 34 saves, many of them exceptional.
Toronto net minder Michael Hutchinson played the first two periods, stopping 8-of-10 shots. Joseph Woll played the third and overtime and made 7-of-8 saves.
Up next for the Wings and Leafs is a Saturday night rematch at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena, the final preseason game for both teams.
1. Evgeny Svechnikov: Svechnikov's hard-luck story of 2018-19 is well-documented. The big forward was injured last year during the preseason and ended up undergoing surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. The surgery ended his season before it began. After a visit home to Russia, Svechnikov remained in Detroit for the rest of the summer, staying with Dylan Larkin. On Friday night at Little Caesars Arena, Svechnikov played in his sixth exhibition game. At 4:41 of the first period, Jarid Lukosevicius' shot went off the crossbar and Svechnikov recovered it and buried the rebound from the right circle. Dominic Turgeon and Lukosevicius picked up the assists. Svechnikov also assisted on Smith's late third-period goal. The one time Svechnikov did not shine was when he lost the puck on his shootout attempt. Svechnikov finished with 22 shifts for 17:27, had a team-high five shots, two hits, a giveaway and was plus-2.

Quotable: "Good forecheck. We'd done a pretty decent job, establish forecheck with the guys and the puck bounced back there. I was just fortunate in front of the net so I shot it in and I was pretty happy. I'll tell you I'm pretty proud of myself. The work I put in over the year, it was hard, it was real tough and I did it every single day since the first day. I'm pretty proud of myself. I didn't think it was going to be going that way but it went pretty well." -- Svechnikov
Quotable II: "Last two games have been his best. I thought he played better as he's grown a little more comfortable with it. Anytime you have a major surgery like that, there's always some pain that continues on. Some of that subsides, some of it you get used to and I think some of it subsiding and some of it he's getting used to a little bit. He just feels more comfortable in the knee. He's done a pretty good job the last couple of games. I thought he was one of our best forwards. We weren't very good tonight but I thought he was one of the best couple forwards tonight. He had pretty good jump, he cares a lot, he wants to be a good player, he works really, really hard." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable III: "That's really tough, to sit out the whole year, especially around these elite players coming to the rink every day with a positive attitude, positive mindset, willing to get better and also coming here and competing, what he does is just unbelievable. Kudos to him." -- Smith
2. Givani Smith: While it might not be likely that Smith could earn a spot on the Red Wings roster to start this season, it's within reason to believe he could be a call-up this season. Smith brings a unique element to the team in that he is a true power forward with a real edge to his game. His opponents generally do not like him and he prefers it that way. In the first period, Smith leveled Nic Petan at the Toronto blueliine. Then in the third after goaltender Jospeh Voll had stopped Trevor Daley's shot, Smith fought Toronto forward Tyler Gaudet. That seemed to spark both the team and Smith. Trailing 3-2, the Wings pulled Bernier for the extra attacker and scored when Smith put the puck past Woll short-side from the left front of the net. All that was missing for Smith was an assist to complete a Gordie Howe hat trick. Smith finished with 20 shifts for 13:46, had one shot, two hits, a takeaway, a blocked shot and was plus-2.

Quotable: "It was a good face-off play and then Svech (Svechnikov), his patience down low, he waited and he saw me in the middle and he hit me right in the middle for a shot. That was a really good play by him. I saw an opening, the goalie was giving me a little spot I shot it right there and picked that corner. I thought I did what I had to do, physical on the forecheck the whole game, being hard to play against, I thought I played pretty good." -- Smith

Quotable II: "I didn't think he was great in Game 1 of the prospects tournament, he didn't play to the identity that's going to make him successful. After that he's done a good job of playing to that identity and has done a good job of being a forechecking presence, being a net presence, sticking up for his teammates, being a pain to play against at times. He's been pretty responsible defensively. So, he's taken steps in the right direction. He's got to be clean with the puck through the neutral zone. Sometimes he wants to over-handle it and turns it over, so just be clean with the puck through the neutral zone and get it behind people and go forecheck and get opportunities for big hits." -- Blashill

3. Jonathan Bernier: One night after Calvin Pickard put on an impressive performance, making 37 of 38 saves at the Calumet Colosseum, Bernier was called upon to do the same. Bernier was under siege most of the night, making all 16 saves in the first period and 6-of-8 in the second. Toronto's first goal, scored by Darren Archibald, was a rebound that was not cleared at 1:59 of the second. The Wings had trouble getting the puck out of their end later in the period and the Leafs capitalized again, with Matt Read scoring from the right circle, shooting into the far side of the net at 14:48. The go-ahead power-play goal that Elynuik scored at 11:14 of the third was also on the rebound. It continued a pattern of Bernier getting not much help throughout the game.
   Quotable: "I think our goaltending in general so far has been a bright spot. Bernier was excellent tonight. He kept us in the game. Up until now, a little bit in the Pittsburgh game, too, we've defended fairly well. We didn't defend great tonight." -- Blashill

Quotable II: "I think he saved us the whole game since the first shift and second shift, he kept us in the game the whole game. You see the shots on the board and he gives us a chance to go in a shootout." -- Svechnikov