Blues Top Wings In OT

The Detroit Red Wings had a one-goal lead with less than a minute remaining and were on the verge of ending the St. Louis Blues' home winning streak.

Blues defenseman Chris Pronger quickly changed things.

Pronger scored with 34.4 seconds left in regulation and set up Pavol Demitra's game-winner 56 seconds into overtime Saturday night in St. Louis' 5-4 victory over Detroit.

The loss was particularly tough for Yzerman, who missed an open net from in close with less than 5 seconds remaining that could have won it for the Red Wings.

"I was thankful (that he missed), because that was game over right there," Pronger said as the Blues won their fifth straight at Kiel Center. "It seemed like he had a lot of time, but when you're in that position with the puck bouncing, you do what you can."

However, Yzerman, was not offering any excuses.

"I just missed the net," he said.

He didn't earlier in the period, though. The Blues led 3-2 entering the final period, but Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom scored 2:19 apart late in the third to give Detroit a 4-3 lead.

With under a minute to go, Pronger, who had four points in the game, rushed the net and tipped home a pass from Pierre Turgeon to send the game to overtime.

"That's not really a set play," Pronger said. "I think (etroit goalie Ken) Wregget thought he could get to the puck before I did. Luckily, I had some jump left and I beat him to the puck."

On the first shift of the extra session, Pronger slid a pass between Lidstrom and Larry Murphy to send Demitra in alone on Wregget. Demitra made a move and put a backhander under Wregget for his fifth goal.

"Chris gave me a great pass," Demitra said. "I moved in, made my move and scored the goal."

Martin Lapointe and Steve Duchesne had the other goals for Detroit. After losing just once in its first nine games, Detroit has dropped two straight.

Yzerman threatened St. Louis' streak when he intercepted Turgeon's clearing pass in the left faceoff circle and beat Blues goalie Roman Turek with a wrist shot to tie the game at 13:37 of the third.

Just over two minutes later, Lapointe kept the puck in the Blues' zone and found Lidstrom open at the left point. Lidstrom's slap shot eluded Turek to give Detroit its first lead.

Tyson Nash scored his first NHL goal, and Mike Eastwood and Turgeon also scored for the Blues. Pronger assisted on the goals by Eastwood and Turgeon.

The Blues took a 1-0 lead 3:17 into the game when Nash took a pass in stride from Terry Yake and blasted a slap shot at Wregget from the top of the left circle. Wregget got a piece of it with his glove, but it trickled over the blue line.

After Lapointe beat Turek with a backhander at 8:58 to tie the game, St. Louis took the lead again with four minutes left in the first on Eastwood's second goal.

Turgeon scored a power-play goal off a rebound to give the Blues a two-goal lead at 5:33 of the second. But Duchesne got the Red Wings back in the game 3:41 later when he put a shot from the top of the right circle between Turek's pads to make it 3-2.

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