Although hometown hero Lucas Raymond scored again in front of a Swedish crowd, the Red Wings suffered their second loss in as many games on Friday at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, losing 3-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The fans were again divided between the two teams, the blue and red jerseys were shared almost equally. He’s even a local guy who was the Leafs’ best player.
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William Nylander scored three points, including the equalizer midway through the third period. With his father Michael, a former National League player, and almost a hundred relatives looking on, the winger equalized when his shot was deflected by an opponent in front of the net.
84 seconds later, John Tavares scored the winning goal by taking advantage of a very nice cross ball from Tyler Bertuzzi. It was the latter who initiated Toronto’s comeback at the start of the third period.
After almost pulling off an incredible comeback against the Ottawa Senators the day before, the Red Wings this time took a two-goal lead in the middle period. Daniel Sprong took advantage of a penalty – by serving Ilya Samsonov a cup of coffee – to break the ice, then Raymond shook the ropes.
The meeting was attended by several Swedish legends, including former Detroit teammates Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall. Both men enjoyed the show, particularly Sprong’s goal which sent the crowd into a frenzy.
While Nicklas Lidstrom took charge of the ceremonial faceoff, this time the organizers decided to send Börje Salming’s son Anders onto the ice. The former Leafs and Wings player, one of the first European players to make the jump to the National League, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis a year ago.
The Leafs remain in Sweden for one more game, Sunday against the Minnesota Wild.