Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Datsyuk converts game-winner to lift Red Wings in overtime

CHICAGO — The Detroit Red Wings stormed back from an early deficit for the second time in two nights. This time, the Red Wings pulled out a hard-fought win instead of taking a hard-luck loss.

Pavel Datsyuk banked in a shot from a bad angle off Chicago defenseman Nick Leddy for the winning goal 3:08 into overtime, and the Red Wings beat the Blackhawks 3-2 on Sunday night.

After Corey Crawford made point-blank saves on Jonathan Ericsson and Johan Franzen, Datsyuk got to the loose puck along the goal line to the goalie's left. He whiffed once and then snapped a rising shot that hit Leddy and bounded into the open upper portion of the net as Crawford was down in the crease.

Detroit's Dan Cleary scored with 4:45 left in regulation to tie it at 2 after Henrik Zetterberg fired a loose puck into traffic in front.

Valtteri Filppula also scored for the Red Wings, who fell behind 2-0 early in the first when Dave Bolland and Patrick Sharp scored 44 seconds apart.

"We showed a lot of character," said Detroit backup Ty Conklin, who made 29 saves. "It could have been easy to quit, I guess, or not pull it out like we did.

"We worked ourselves back into last night's game, too. This was a good win."

The Red Wings were coming off a 4-3 loss in Toronto on Saturday. Detroit rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie it, but lost after Joffrey Lupul scored late following a Red Wings turnover.

"The way we had to play (Saturday) night, I didn't think we'd have much energy (Sunday) — and we sure didn't early," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Our guys stayed with it and dug in. This is a big win for us."

Conklin was sharp in his sixth start of the season and first win since beating Colorado 3-0 on Oct. 8.

He stopped a penalty shot by Chicago rookie Jimmy Hayes, playing in his fifth NHL game, at 7:53 of the third. It was awarded after Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom covered a loose puck in the crease as it slid toward the goal line from a scrum.

Detroit's comeback sent Chicago to a season-high fourth straight loss. Crawford made 24 saves for the Blackhawks, who lost for the fifth time in six games following a 9-1-1 run.

Ducks 7, Blue Jackets 4

In Anaheim, Corey Perry completed his fourth NHL hat trick by scoring into an empty net in the final minute, Teemu Selanne had two goals, and the Ducks beat Columbus despite losing goalie Jonas Hiller in the first period.

Saku Koivu had a goal and two assists, Andrew Cogliano also scored, and Bobby Ryan and Lubomir Visnovsky each had two assists.

Anaheim, coming off a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Friday, has won back-to-back games for the first time since starting the season 4-1. The Ducks had scored more than four goals only once in their 39 previous games — a 6-5 loss to Chicago in Nov. 25.

Rick Nash had two goals, and Derick Brassard and Vinny Prospal also scored for the Blue Jackets, who are an NHL-worst 11-25-5 and could have sent Anaheim to the bottom of the standings with a regulation victory. But the Ducks built a 4-1 lead against Steve Mason in the first period after outshooting Columbus 16-8.

Senators 6, Flyers 4

In Ottawa, Filip Kuba scored the go-ahead goal with 1:11 left and the Senators beat Philadelphia to earn a split of the weekend home-and-home series.

Kuba fired a slap shot from the left point past goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, and Nick Foligno sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 45 seconds to go.


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