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Martin Frk (42) helps warm up goalie Jake Paterson before Saturday's loss to Columbus.

(Brendan Savage | MLive.com)

TRAVERSE CITY – The odds are against the Detroit Red Wings winning their prospects tournament for a second straight year.

After losing 5-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday, a number of things would have to go in the Red Wings' favor for them to even have a shot at playing in the championship game.

They'd have to beat the Minnesota Wild Monday, hope the St. Louis Blues beat Columbus and then win one if not more tie-breakers.

Doesn't sound promising, eh?

But if anything good came out of the loss to the Blue Jackets, it's that the prospects will get an opportunity to show the Red Wings' brass how they react to adversity after blowing a two-goal lead for the second straight game.

Coach Jeff Blashill is eager to see how they respond.

"This is a huge evaluation process not only for myself but obviously the entire Red Wings staff," said Blashill, who will be coaching some of the prospects in Grand Rapids this season. "It's easy when things are going well. How is it when you gotta face some adversity?

"I think that's a big factor in whether guys are successful in pro or not. It should be interesting to see how we come back and play on Monday."

The players were disappointed in themselves after blowing another two-goal lead.

They recovered Friday to beat St. Louis 6-5 in overtime but weren't as fortunate against the more physical Blue Jackets.

After Colin Campbell and Anthony Mantha gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes, Columbus tied it on second-period goals by Josh Anderson and Markus Soberg,

The Red Wings regained the lead when Tomas Nosek connected five minutes into the third but Detroit allowed the final three goals as Columbus moved within one victory of appearing in the championship game thanks to its second game in as many outings.

"Monday we need to have a huge game," said Mantha, the Red Wings' No. 1 prospect who has three goals in two games. "We can still finish first if this team loses. I'm not too sure (about tie-breakers). We need to go out there, have fun and get the win.

"If we play well Monday, who knows? We might have a championship game again. We need to be ready Monday and we'll come here with the mentality to win."

Penalties hurt the Red Wings for the second straight game.

St. Louis scored three times on the power play Friday and Columbus tallied twice, tying it 3-3 midway through the third period when Peter Quenneville scored after Detroit's Ryan Sproul and Hayden Hodgson were penalized a little more than two minutes apart.

In two games during the tournament, the Red Wings penalty killers have allowed their opponents to score five goals in 11 power plays. That's a success rate of 45 percent.

"The guys who play on the penalty kill (lose) a lot of energy from that," said forward Martin Frk. "It's hard for us. We have to stay out of the penalty box and try not to take penalties because we give them chances to score goals.

"It sucks but we have to learn from this and make sure we don't do it next game."

Perhaps the most difficult thing to swallow was the Red Wings outplayed Columbus for much of the game.

They dominated the first period, outshooting the Blue Jackets 10-3, and finished with a 34-18 advantage in the shots department while going 1-for-7 on the power play.

In two games, Detroit is 1-for-9 (.111) with a manpower advantage.

"I thought there were periods in the game when we could have been up 5-0," Blashill said. "We had some chances but their goalie made some really big saves. When you keep it at 2-0 and you're not able to get that third one or that fourth one, all of sudden things start going the other way.

"I actually thought we played better tonight than last night. That was my gut feeling, that was our coaching staff's gut feeling. But our special teams weren't good enough and they scored more on their specialty teams.

"That was the difference."

Jake Paterson started in goal for the Red Wings. He made 13 saves after allowing three goals on five shots in the third period.

In other games Saturday, Minnesota beat St. Louis 4-3 in overtime, Dallas beat Carolina 4-2 and the New York Rangers beat Buffalo 2-1.

Dallas can earn a spot in the championship game by beating winless Buffalo Monday.

No games are scheduled for today so Blashill gave the Red Wings the day off.

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