THE HIGHLIGHTS

• Tonight was Hockey Fights Cancer night in Detroit and the Red Wings organization along with Fox Sports Detroit did a beautiful job executing it all night in Little Caesars Arena. The purple ads on the boards were a very nice touch.
• The Wings had an explosive first period as they got goals from Anthony Mantha, Dennis Cholowski, and Michael Rasmussen (in that order). Rasmussen’s goal came from his knees after he got pushed to the ice in front of the net on a Red Wings 5-on-3. It was a dirty goal, unlike the two snipes by Mantha and Cholowski.

• It was one of the most dominant first periods of the Red Wings season so far as they out-shot and out-chanced the Coyotes.
• The onslaught continued in the second period as the Wings added one more from noted sniper Luke Glendening. Justin Abdelkader had a nice head’s up pass to send the fourth line center onto a breakaway. He made no mistake in burying it:

• The Coyotes also scored a goal in the second period, but it was called back after a successful coaches challenge for offside by Jeff Blashill.
• The third period was quite eventful. After taking a penalty at the end of the second, Andreas Athanasiou came out of the box and scored off a lucky bounce. Darren Helm blocked a shot in his own end and the loose puck came right to center ice where Athanasiou took off on a breakaway out of the box. He scored a beautiful goal.

• Mike Green added a 6th goal to the tally and then things got dicey. Detroit scored again from their own end, but the goal was called back because of a delayed penalty on Rasmussen for cross-checking.
• Arizona would end Jimmy Howard’s shutout with a goal by Lawson Crouse late in the third period.

FINAL THOUGHT