LOS ANGELES 3, DETROIT 2 (OT)
Luc Robitaille's sweet power-play goal in overtime gave the L.A.
Kings a 3-2 victory over the Red Wings. Lying on his back and
swinging a shot around backwards, he beat Chris Osgood for the
winning goal that snapped the Red Wings seven-game unbeaten streak.
The Wings floundered from a 2-0 lead by allowing two goals within
29 seconds by the Kings to force the game into overtime.
Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov scored for the Red Wings.
"Obviously, we didn't play well enough to win this game," forward
Martin Lapointe said. "We were leading 2-0. We could have buried
them, but we didn't. We have to take the blame for that."
The Kings mounted a furious comeback for the Kings, who outshot
Detroit 40-26. "It wasn't a real strong game on our part," Murphy
said. "We gave them too many opportunities."
Shanahan had a bit of luck while giving Detroit a 1-0 lead with his
22nd goal with 5:45 left in the first period. Captain Steve
Yzerman started the play with what appeared to be a harmless shot
from the left circle. But then the Kings' Jozef Stumpel reached
out for the puck, he deflected it onto the stick of Shanahan at the
right side. A quick wrist shot was put right into the net.
The Wings were out worked and out played. No longer can the Wings
win on reputation alone or mere talent. They will have to work
twice as hard to beat teams that are rising to the occasion to
beat them.
DETROIT 5, FLORIDA 5 (OT)
In overtime Igor Larionov came within inches of giving the Red Wings
a win, but a 5-5 tie was all they could manage with the Florida
Panthers. Larionov's power-play goal with 5:04 left in the third
period allowed the Red Wings to escape with the tie after a furious
comeback by the Panthers. But when he blazed a shot just inside the
post with 1:04 left in the overtime period, McLean reached out and
snagged it.
"I had a good shot to win it in overtime," Larionov said. "McLean
just made an unbelievable save. That's credit to the skill he
has."
Florida, outshot 36-17 for the game, had just seven shots on goal in
the third period but scored on four of them, marking the second
straight game the Red Wings have surrendered a seemingly safe
third period lead. Not exactly a way to get into the playoffs
playing that kind of hockey. "We had a collapse there in the
third," defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. "They were really
steamrolling us there. Thank God we got a power play. That gave us
a chance to come back."
Pavel Bure scored twice for the Panthers with one coming on a
penalty shot. Kirk Maltby scored twice, while Sergei Fedorov and
Martin Lapointe also scored. "We just gave them all the ice they
wanted to skate on," Lidstrom said. "There's no explaining that.
They were just flying past us. We gave up some real pretty goals
there."
Larionov tied it 5-5 with his 11th goal. "That's exciting hockey to
watch, but there were too many mistakes leading to the action,"
Larionov said.
N.Y. ISLANDERS 3, DETROIT 1
The Red Wings peppered goalie Tommy Salo with 35 shots. But they
also allowed two power-play goals as the New York Islanders beat
the Red Wings 3-1. It was the Islanders first victory at home
against the Wings since 1993. The Wings have gone 0-2-2 in their
last four games. Not an impressive stretch heading into a five-day
break.
Tomas Holmstrom cut New York's lead to 2-1 at 14:50 on a tip of
Dougie Brown's cross ice pass that hit the left post and went in
for the loan goal. Sergie Fedorov was thrown out on a match
penalty for high sticking defenseman Zdeno Chara's neck with six
minutes to go. Chara blacked out for a moment and was
hyperventilating, but only suffered a bruise. It was a vicious
attack by Fedorov and he was later to receive by the league a
five-game suspension. That's close to half a million dollars in
pay that he will not receive during that time off.
"I tried to get up and the stick just got him," Fedorov said. "I
was on my back, and I thought the puck was under me, so I tried to
get up quickly and recover my position. I didn't mean to injure
him." The NHL feels otherwise on the issue. Said a disagreeable
Chara, "I know hockey is a rough game, but I thought that was a
cheap shot."
DETROIT 7, PHOENIX 2
Brendan Shanahan's feeling good lately and is making his opponents
pay for it. Shanahan scored two of his three goals within a
55-second span of the second period as the Red Wings beat the
Phoenix Coyotes 7-2 in a rout.
"It's nice to get rewarded for the way I'm feeling health-wise,"
said Shanahan, who recorded his 12th career hat trick. "There were
a lot of good things going on tonight. I shouldn't get all the
credit just because I scored a few goals."
Captain Steve Yzerman had a goal and an assist and Slava Kozlov,
Mathieu Dandenault and Tomas Holmstrom also scored for the Red
Wings, who snapped their four-game winless streak. They beat the
Coyotes for the first time in three tries this season.
Chris Osgood made 36 saves for the Wings in the win. The Wings
played without centerman Sergei Fedorov who is out serving a
five-game league handed suspension. The Red Wings had only 10
shots on goal over the game's first 25 minutes but made the most
of their opportunities. Kozlov scored his 13th goal on Detroit's
first shot when he one timed a pass from Igor Larionov past Jimmy
Waite 70 seconds into the game. Yzerman gave Detroit a 2-1 lead
when he beat Waite on the Red Wings' fourth shot with a sweet one
timer from the left circle at 8:24 of the period. Shanahan put the
game out of reach early in the second period. First he redirected a
blast by Larry Murphy from the point past Waite at 3:37 of the
period, then he took a pass from Yzerman and bounced a shot off
the inside of the left post 55 seconds later. A great win for the
Red Wings against one of the conference favorites.
ANAHEIM 3, DETROIT 1
The Red Wings made two defensive lapses less than a minute apart in
the second period that handed the Mighty Ducks a 3-1 victory. The
game ended a six-game winless streak against the Red Wings.
Former Red Wing Tomas Sandstrom scored while goalie Guy Hebert made
33 saves. The win for the Ducks put them just one point behind the
Red Wings for the fourth seed in the Western Conference , which
means home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The Red Wings just missed getting shut out for the third time this
season. Captain Steve Yzerman scored his 26th goal on a power play
less than four minutes into the third. The Wings offensivelly had
the chances. But the game was very chippy with quite few high
sticking penalties called. The game had the instensity of a playoff
game but not much discipline from either team.
"They've definitely got more depth and they're getting a lot of
effective play out of other guys, so it makes a huge difference for
them," Yzerman said. "They didn't have to rely on Paul and Teemu
for their goals tonight."
For your information, Darcy Tucker has never played for the Red
Wings.
