Red Wings Ride Wild Finish Past Blackhawks

The Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks combined for three goals in a span of 50 seconds late in the third period on Saturday, with the Red Wings holding on and adding an empty-net goal in the final minute en route to a 6-3 win.

Detroit was up 3-2 when Jason Williams scored his second of the night on a blast from the blue line on the power play with 6:23 remaining in the period.

Just 27 seconds later, Tony Salmelainen slipped a shot between the pads of Detroit netminder Chris Osgood on a broken play.

Only 23 seconds after that, Danny Markov blasted a shot that bounced up and over Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and into the net, restoring Detroit’s two goal lead.

Kris Draper scored the empty-netter with 17 seconds left in the game to round out the scoring efforts.

Chicago had taken a lead at 5:18 of the first with a blast from the left point by Brent Seabrook that bounced off the skate of defender Niklas Kronwall just seconds after the expiration of a Detroit penalty.

Tomas Holmstrom would put the Red Wings on the board with 4:01 remaining in the period. Pretty passing got the puck from Pavel Datsyuk to Henrik Zetterberg and then to Holmstrom at the top of the crease before Holmstrom faked out Khabibulin and put it past him.

Williams’ first of the night, also a power play goal, put Detroit in the lead. Williams got the puck in the slot with his back to the net and lifted a backhander between the legs of a screening Dan Cleary and past Khabibulin with 7:00 remaining in the period.

Robert Lang would score 1:42 later for Detroit’s second power play goal of the night, giving the Red Wings a 3-1 lead by blasting home the rebound of a Nicklas Lidstrom shot.

Craig MacDonald cut the lead back to one with 3:46 left in the second, poking home the rebound of a Martin Havlat shot that Osgood lost track of in his skates.

The Red Wings killed off a two-minute five-on-three split across the end of the second period and the start of the third period to hold on to the one-goal lead. It was one of six power play chances that Chicago failed to score on. The Red Wings were 3-for-7 with the extra attacker.

Osgood stopped 33 of 36 shots against to earn the win while Khabibulin made 26 saves on 31 shots.

The Red Wings will be back in action on Monday night when they host the Montreal Canadiens in a nationally-broadcast Original Six matchup.

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A short ceremony prior to the game featuring Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm recognized Saturday as Steve Yzerman Day throughout the state.