Blue Jackets 1, Red Wings 0: A Goalies' Night in Columbus Ends in a Shootout
Sixty-five scoreless minutes and a Conor Garland shootout winner opened the preseason with a reminder that both teams' biggest questions start in the crease.
Preseason openers rarely produce clean sheets on both sides of the ice for sixty-five minutes. Monday's meeting in Columbus did: the Blue Jackets beat the Red Wings 1-0 in a shootout after regulation and overtime passed without a goal, per the Red Wings' official recap.
Four goalies, no goals
Detroit split the night between Daniil Tarasov, who stopped all 15 shots he faced across two periods in his first appearance for the club, and Michal Postava, who made 10 saves the rest of the way. Columbus countered with Jet Greaves and Phoenix Copley, who combined for 18 saves. Head coach Todd McLellan kept the assessment simple: "I thought the goaltending was really good" — and on Tarasov specifically, "fantastic."
The decisive moments
The Red Wings' special teams told a split story: the penalty kill went a perfect 5-for-5, while the power play came up empty on three chances. When it reached the shootout, Conor Garland beat Postava for the only conversion, and Copley shut the door on Detroit's Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Nate Danielson, and John Leonard. The game also carried some early-camp edge — Kienan Draper and Luke Tuch dropped the gloves in the second period, and Max McCue challenged Guillaume Richard late in the third.
Why it matters
Nobody hangs a banner for September 21, but crease competitions are decided by exactly these nights. Tarasov's spotless Detroit debut is a first data point in a battle for work behind the Red Wings' established options, and Columbus got a clean opener from both of its netminders plus a perfect kill of its own storyline: a young roster that defended without the puck. Detroit turned around to face Pittsburgh two nights later; the power play, 0-for-3 here, is the item circled on the film.