The St. Louis Blues came into this season hoping to replicate the success they had last year, and in their two opening games in Sweden, they did just that, knocking off the Detroit Red Wings on back-to-back nights. The first game in Stockholm was highlighted by two goals from veteran Paul Kariya, while Keith Tkachuk notched his first two of the season in the second.
On both nights, the Red Wings had early leads after the first period, but were unable to hold on to win, as the Blues were able to show some of the firepower that was taken away from them by injuries last year. Detroit was up 3-1 at one point in the first game on Friday night, as Jonathan Ericsson and Ville Leino scored their first points of the season, while Kirk Maltby scored a shorthanded goal midway through the first frame. In the second, it was all St. Louis, however, as Kariya scored both his goals within five minutes of each other. BJ Crombeen added the tying goal at the 14 minute mark of the period, while Kariya’s powerplay marker ended up being the game winner.
In Game 2, the Red Wings jumped out to an early lead again, going up 2-0 on goals from Tomas Holmstrom and Daniel Cleary. Tkachuk scored his first of 2 powerplay goals near the end of the first, however, and the Blues added 3 more in the second to go ahead for good. The turning point in the game came in the 13th minute of the 2nd period, when Brad Boyes and Patrik Berglund scored 13 seconds apart to give the Blues a 4-3 lead. Tkachuk added an insurance goal midway through the 3rd period.
While the teams alternated as home and away for the two games, the crowd was decidedly in support of the Red Wings, as Detroit has eight Swedes on the team. Superstars Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom are some of the most popular Swedish players in the game. Niklas Kronwall, Johan Franzen, Jonathan Ericsson, Andreas Lilja and youngster Dick Axelsson are the other Swedish Red Wings.
Highly touted prospect Jimmy Howard got the start for Detroit the second game, while backup Ty Conklin played for St. Louis. Regular starters Chris Osgood and Chris Mason played the first match on Friday night.