Playing in Centennial Classic a ‘neat experience’ for Red Wings’ Jared Coreau

TORONTO — Jared Coreau was more familiar with playing in empty pro rinks around the East Coast Hockey League and American Hockey League until last month where a smelling salt in his mask was required to keep himself engaged in games.

Coreau made 23 saves for the Detroit Red Wings in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday in the Centennial Classic.

Playing in front of 40,148 at BMO Field is an opportunity that Coreau won’t soon forget.

“It was a neat experience, not a lot of guys get the opportunity to play in games like this,” he said. “It’s an emotional roller coaster: go down 4-1, come back, push it to overtime with 1.7 seconds remaining — it shows a lot about the guys in this room, no quit. We got the point, but I need to do a better job in the third.”

Coreau’s path to the Red Wings has been an unconventional journey.

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He grew up in Perth, Ont., a town of nearly 6,000 people an hour southwest of Ottawa, and after one season with the Lincoln Stars of the USHL, Coreau attended North Michigan University where he majored in accounting and corporate finance for three years.

Coreau posted a 32-31-8 record to go along with a 2.72 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage in 76 games with the Wildcats. The 25-year-old signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Detroit Red Wings in April 2013 after going undrafted.

The six-foot-six, 220-pound goaltender spent the better part of the next year and a half with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye before finally earning a regular roster spot with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins during the 2014-15 season.

Coreau was recalled on Nov. 26 after veteran Jimmy Howard was sidelined with an injury and made 32 saves in his NHL debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 3.

“It’s something you always look at,” Coreau said of his journey to the Red Wings lineup. “But you’ve got to start somewhere and we all as hockey players have the ultimate goal of playing here. It takes a lot of hard work and all these guys have done it.”

Just over three weeks after his debut, Coreau picked up his second career win at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre — a rink where he grew up attending games.

“I had over 20 people there. I was in that rink a lot growing up, it was really neat playing in it,” Coreau said.

Coreau found out on Saturday that he would be getting his fourth start of the season — the same day that former Maple Leafs goaltender Curtis Joseph, who Coreau grew up idolizing, was appearing in an alumni game between Toronto and Detroit.

“I thought Jared played a real good game in Ottawa, I thought it was the best game he had played of the three so I thought it was the right move to put him in,” said Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill. “I thought he made a couple of big saves in overtime to keep it even and then I thought it in that little stretch there he wasn’t quite as strong as he had been in the other parts of the game — kind of mirrors our team.

“I think it’s a good step forward for him. That was a big moment for a guy in his fourth game in the NHL. I thought overall he did a real good job.”

Dhiren Mahiban, The Canadian Press