Wings Win, Yzerman Gets 600th

Steve Yzerman was a bit embarrassed by the all the attention. Even after scoring his 600th goal, the Detroit captain would rather talk about team accomplishments.

Yzerman scored the milestone goal Friday night in the Red Wings' 4-2 victory over Edmonton to became the 11th player in NHL history to reach the mark.

But nothing, Yzerman said, compares to the two Stanley Cup championships he helped the Red Wings win in 1997 and '98.

"That blows everything away."

Yzerman, who topped 900 assists last week, also joined Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Marcel Dionne and Mark Messier as the only NHL players with 600 goals and 900 assists. Yzerman has 1,503 points to rank seventh on the career list.

Yzerman scored on a power play at 12:30 of the first period. After winning a faceoff, Yzerman took a pass from Nicklas Lidstrom, skated up the goal line and lifted a drive that bounced off the glove of goalie Tommy Salo before glancing off the back of his left leg and into the net.

"I was trying to lay it over everyone's stick and it hit the goalie's glove and went in," Yzerman said. "I'll take it. I've had some good chances lately and haven't been able to score."

Salo was amazed Yzerman scored.

"It hit my glove and I was trying to reach back for it," Salo said. "He was lucky to get it in. I was there; there was nothing else I could do. He was trying to pass the puck and got a lucky goal."

Yzerman scored his 600th goal in his 1,201st regular-season game. He wouldn't speculate about his chances for 700.

"don't know," Yzerman, 34, said. "I'm racing against time there."

Yzerman, in his 17th season with the Red Wings, is second to former Pittsburgh star Mario Lemieux on the NHL's list of players who have scored all their goals with one team. Lemieux had 613 goals with the Penguins.

"Look at his overall record," Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said. "We were looking at it today and he's had a lot of accomplishments. This is not the end of it, but he has a lot of good numbers."

Detroit's Larry Murphy played his 1,500th career game, joining Howe, Alex Delvecchio and Johnny Bucyk as the only players to reach that milestone.

"I look at it as one of those cases where you hang in there year after year and obviously the numbers add up and here I am today," Murphy said. "It doesn't seem that long ago that I first started. And having said all that, I think I have a lot more games in me."

Pat Verbeek, Brendan Shanahan and Martin Lapointe also scored for the Red Wings, who won their second straight despite missing their top goalie and five forwards.

Chris Osgood, tied for the NHL victory lead, missed the game after bruising his hand Wednesday night against St. Louis. But backup Ken Wregget stopped 39 shots for his third victory.

Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Tomas Holmstrom and Sergei Fedorov also are out with injuries. McCarty, nursing a groin pull, also is mourning the death of his father.

Roman Hamrlik and Ryan Smyth scored for Edmonton, who lost despite outshooting Detroit 41-32. Salo, who beat Detroit 2-1 last Saturday in Edmonton, made 28 saves.

"We've got a good team here and we out-chanced them," Edmonton's Doug Weight said. "We had the chances and we have to put 'em in."

Verbeek and Shanahan scored second-period goals to give Detroit a 3-0 lead.

Verbeek was parked just right of the goal when he easily converted a pass from Darryl Laplante at the 7:26 mark. Shanahan scored on a rebound at 16:40.

Hamrliscored at 1:15 of the third period, but Lapointe answered just 33 seconds later when he one-timed a pass from Igor Larionov past Salo. Smyth completed the scoring at 6:30.

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