Blackhawks Fall To Red Wings In Shootout
DETROIT (AP) — Darren Helm scored on Detroit's sixth attempt in the shootout and Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaw's shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks faced Detroit for the first time since beating them in overtime in Game 7 of their second-round series last year to complete a comeback from a 3-1 deficit.
Chicago captain Jonathan Toews scored on his team's first attempt in the shootout and Patrick Sharp scored on the second before Patrick Kane was stopped with a chance to win the game.
Gustavsson, playing for the injured Jimmy Howard, made 31 saves in his first game in nearly a month.
Corey Crawford gave up four goals on the first 17 shots he faced and finished with 27 saves for the Blackhawks.
Chicago took a 2-0 lead when Marian Hossa and Shaw scored 1:45 apart midway through the first period and it looked like the offensively challenged and banged-up Red Wings were in trouble.
Tomas Tatar, though, scored less than a minute later and Patrick Eaves tied the game at 2 late in the opening period.
Patrick Sharp's slap shot just seconds into a power play early in the second put the Blackhawks ahead again, but Kyle Quincey responded 1:17 later in the period with a game-tying goal.
Detroit's Gustav Nyquist was set up perfectly in front of the net on a go-ahead goal off Henrik Zetterberg's third assist of the night after Justin Abdelkader hustled for loose puck in a corner.
The Red Wings then they didn't take advantage of 4-minute power play late in the period. They failed to score with an extra skater and got called for a penalty of their own. After killing the end of the penalty early in the third, the Red Wings put Chicago on the power play again and they escaped again. But less than a minute later, Detroit defenseman Brendan Smith turned the puck over in his end with an ill-advised pass from the boards to the middle of the ice and Marcus Kruger's wrist shot from the slot went off the left post and in the net.
Crawford made some clutch saves to keep it tied in the third, denying Detroit on a goal-mouth scramble and going from left to right to stop Abdelkader's attempt to put Detroit ahead. The Red Wings had a chance to go ahead when Duncan Keith was called for interference with 5:07 left in the game, but Gustavsson was more tested than Crawford during the 2-minute stretch.
The banged-up Red Wings were without injured forwards Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Daniel Alfredsson and Joakim Andersson. They did get defenseman Jonathan Ericsson in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 23 when he broke ribs in a game against the New York Islanders.
NOTES: Datsyuk missed his eighth straight game with a lower-body injury, but has begun to skate again and said he will "for sure" play for Russia has its captain next month at the Winter Olympics. ... Crawford hadn't given up four goals since Dec. 5, 2013, since a 4-3 loss to Minnesota and had allowed five goals in two games earlier in the season. ... Chicago was 9-0-1 in its previous 10 regular season games in Detroit. ... Kane hasn't scored in 11 games, the longest streak without a goal since going 12 games without a goal during the 2008-09 season.
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