Hull Ties Record as Wings Defeat ‘Yotes

Brett Hull scored his 263rd career power play goal Wednesday night, helping lift the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-2 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. The goal put Hull into a tie with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Dave Andreychuk for first place all-time in career power play goals scored.

Hull’s goal was the second of the game, scored with 3:55 remaining in the second period. With Detroit leading by a goal and Phoenix’s Todd Reirden in the box, Hull took Henrik Zetterberg’s pass from the right corner in the faceoff circle and blasted one of his trademark one-timers by Coyotes’ goalie Brian Boucher.

Detroit had opened the scoring with 6:15 left in the first period. Mathieu Dandenault, moved back to defense to compensate for the scratched Jason Woolley after playing recently at forward, fired a shot from the right point that deflected off a skate and by Boucher.

The Coyotes pulled back to within a goal after Hull scored. On a power play of their own, Chris Gratton banked a shot off the back of Detroit netminder Manny Legace’s leg. Legace was left sprawling after Paul Mara’s shot went wide of the net, the puck bounced off the back boards straight to Gratton, who couldn’t be stopped at the 6:22 mark of the third period.

Just 2:05 later, a second Detroit power play goal put the Red Wings up by two again. As the puck was kicked and tipped around the ice on a broken play, Mathieu Schneider stepped into the slot and picked it up, firing a wrist shot past Boucher.

The Coyotes pulled within one again 1:09 later, when Fredrik Sjostrom flipped a shot from the side of the net past Legace as he fell to the ice.

Kris Draper’s career year continued with two insurance goals in the final two minutes of the game. With 1:50 remaining Draper intercepted a pass and wristed a shot at Boucher from the slot. The puck slipped through the goaltender’s pads and trickled across the goal line to put Detroit back up by two goals. He added an empty-net goal with 57 seconds left on the clock.

Legace stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced in net for Detroit. Boucher made 29 saves on the 33 shots he faced making the start for Phoenix.

The Red Wings are next in action Friday night when they host the St. Louis Blues.