Wings Clipped: Maple Leafs dump Red Wings 6-2 in opener of home-and-home set

Gardiner added another goal late in the third period and Nazem Kadri also scored for the 6-1-0 Maple Leafs. Gustav Nyquist and Dylan Larkin replied for Detroit (6-1-0).

The off-season addition of a star forward like Tavares has made Toronto one of the deepest offensive teams in the NHL. Adding him to a power play anchored by Matthews — one of the league’s best young players — should give opposing teams fits.

Tavares said Matthews drew the defencemen in his direction before putting it “on a tee.”

“That’s when you know you’ve got a guy that is a special player,” Tavares said. “It’s not just finding the open man, it’s how he delivers it and how he gets it there.”

It was the fifth goal of the pre-season for Tavares.

“He got in a really good lane,” Matthews said. “I had all day, I knew he was there and he got open, so I just tried to fake a shot and get to him and he was able to put it in the back of the net.”

The teams will close out their pre-season schedules Saturday night with the back end of the home-and-home set at Little Caesars Arena.

The Maple Leafs iced a lineup that will be similar to the one they’ll use in their regular-season opener Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens.

Kadri opened the scoring 98 seconds into the game by taking advantage of some lax Detroit defence.

Frans Nielsen and Dennis Cholowski put up little resistance as Kadri moved the puck to his forehand and found the top corner on Jimmy Howard’s blocker side.

Detroit pulled even with a power-play goal at 10:21. Cholowski carried the puck to centre and used a nifty backhand saucer pass to find Nyquist, who cut behind the Toronto defence and rifled the puck past Frederik Andersen.

Toronto had a glorious chance while shorthanded late in the period. Mitch Marner intercepted the puck, left it for Gardiner, who shovelled it to a wide-open Frederik Gauthier, but Howard stood his ground.

The pace was decent for a pre-season affair but the play was choppy at times. The offence came with a flurry in the second period as Toronto showed off its special teams.

Gardiner got things started by floating a shot from the point that beat a screened Howard at 12:47. Tavares made it 3-1 at 14:58 and Marleau padded the lead 27 seconds later.

Josh Leivo’s wide slapshot came off the boards to Marleau on the other side of the net and Howard couldn’t get across the crease in time. Leivo led all players with three assists.

Strong forechecking work by Connor Brown paid off as he dug the puck free and found Lindholm, who beat Howard from a tight angle at 16:41.

“We still have lots of work to do in our zone but I thought we played heavier in the offensive zone, which was a huge priority for us,” said Toronto coach Mike Babcock.

Backup netminder Harri Sateri started the third period for Detroit. Larkin cut into the Toronto lead at 1:10 by tipping in Nick Jensen’s wrist shot from the point.

Gardiner added an insurance goal at 15:41. The Maple Leafs outshot Detroit 28-25.

The Red Wings will open the regular season Thursday at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Wings Clipped: Maple Leafs dump Red Wings 6-2 in opener of home-and-home set

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