The Detroit Red Wings finished a sweep of their home-and-home series with the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, picking up a 5-3 win in the second of the games on back-to-back nights.
Mathieu Schneider, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk each had a multi-point night and defenseman Cory Cross, playing his first game with the Red Wings, scored the game’s opening goal.
Cross’ goal came just 1:49 into the game on a turnover by Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. Khabibulin attempted to play the puck away from the oncoming Jason Williams but instead put it right onto his stick. Williams sent a pass through the crease to Robert Lang at the bottom of the left circle. Lang held on just long enough for Cross to jump up from the blue line into the slot before sending a pass that Cross one-timed past Khabibulin.
Brendan Shanahan put the Red Wings up by a pair just 2:17 later, taking a Datsyuk pass from behind the net and banging a bad-angle shot past Khabibulin.
At 6:57, Datsyuk extended the Red Wings’ lead to three goals, taking an outlet pass in the neutral zone during a Chicago line change and skating in all alone on Khabibulin, cutting to his left to lift a shot into the net.
Craig Anderson replaced Khabibulin after the Datsyuk goal and the Blackhawks began their comeback.
With 5:00 remaining in the first, Mikael Holmqvist capitalized on a series of miscues by the Red Wings beginning with a bad pass by netminder Chris Osgood to Andreas Lilja. After that pass failed to connect and a diving Kris Draper missed a clearing attempt, Holmqvist was left alone in front to lift a rebound over the sprawling Osgood.
At 5:26 of the second period, Patrick Sharp scored a goal very similiar to the one he scored on Saturday night. Sharp came in off the right wing and cut to the net, holding the puck at the top of the crease before sliding a shot under Osgood.
The Red Wings bounced back in the third period and didn’t let Chicago tie it, with Zetterberg scoring just four seconds into a power play at 3:40 of the period.
After losing a faceoff in the Blackhawks’ zone, Zetterberg went to the net while Datsyuk won back the puck. Datsyuk fed Zetterberg from the corner and the Swede was wide open to lift it into the net.
Chicago pulled back to within one with 9:34 remaining, as Matt Cullen redirected a Brent Seabrook shot into the top of the net, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Mathieu Schneider scored the game’s final goal with 7:06 remaining, one-timing a pass from behind the net home.
Osgood earned his second win in as many starts after a turbulent January and February, stopping 17 of the twenty shots he faced. Khabibulin made only two saves on five shots before Anderson replaced him and made 21 saves on 23 shots.
Detroit scored one power play goal on four chances and held the Blackhawks without a power play goal in the same amount of tries.
The Red Wings will be back in action on Wednesday when they host the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Cross’ goal came on his first shot as a Red Wing.
