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Anthony Mantha, the Red Wings' No. 1 prospect, scored twice Friday in the opening game of the prospects tournament vs. the St. Louis Blues.

(Brendan Savage | MLive.com)

TRAVERSE CITY – Anthony Mantha lived up to the hype on the opening night of the Detroit Red Wings prospects tournament.

Much is expected from the Red Wings' No. 1 prospect, who is turning pro after a pair of 50-goal season capped an outstanding junior career that ended with him being named the QMJHL MVP and CHL Player of the Year.

He didn't disappoint the 1,200 fans who showed up on the first game of the prospects tournament.

Mantha scored twice Friday night as the Red Wings opened defense of their prospects tournament championship with a 6-5 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues at Centre Ice Arena.

Free agent invitee Joe Hicketts scored the winning goal with 1:50 left in OT, burying a pass from Martin Frk into the opener corner of the net.

Mantha, who scored 57 goals last season after being the Red Wings' first-round pick (20th overall) in the 2013 draft, opened the scoring on the Red Wings second shot of the game by burying a shot under the crossbar six minutes after the opening faceoff.

He made it 3-1 less than four minutes into the second on a pretty goal. Martin Frk threw the puck out from the corner toward the net and Mantha batted it out of midair past St. Louis goaltender Niklas Lundstrom.

In between, Andreas Athanasiou – who scored 49 goals in his final junior campaign last season – also tallied for the Red Wings when he fired of a rocket of a wrist shot past Lundstrom on a power play midway through the first period.

St. Louis erased the Red Wings' 3-1 lead by scoring three straight goals while dominating much of the second period. The Blues outshot Detroit 12-8 in the second as the Red Wings were hit with three penalties in a span of 3:02.

The Blues scored three of their first four goals on the power play, taking a 4-3 lead with 8:45 left in the second, when Thomas Vannelli scored during a 5-on-3 manpower advantage.

The Red Wings tied it on Zach Nastasiuk's goal 6:15 into the third before Jaedon Descheneau put St. Louis back in front with 4:35 left. But the Red Wings' Ryan Sproul tied it with 51.4 seconds remaining after Detroit pulled goaltender Jared Coreau for an extra attacker.

Coreau made 19 saves.

Ty Rattie, C.J. Yakimowicz and Yannick Veilleux also scored for St. Louis.

NOTES: Mantha skated on a line with Martin Frk and Tomas Nosek. ... Frk, Sproul and Nastasiuk served as the Red Wings' alternate captains. There was no team captain. ... Almost 150 scouts representing more than 20 NHL teams were on hand. ... The overtime format being used is four minutes of 4-on-4 followed by three minutes of 3-on-3 if necessary.

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