Red Wings Hold Off Avalanche Comeback, Move into First Place with Win

The Detroit Red Wings weathered a late comeback attempt by the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday night, holding on to earn a 3-2 win.

The victory gives Detroit 94 points in the standings, one more than both the San Jose Sharks and the Boston Bruins for first place overall in the league. San Jose has three games in hand on the Red Wings while Boston has one.

Valtteri Filppula, Johan Franzen, and Kris Draper scored for Detroit. Colorado got goals from John-Michael Liles and Milan Hejduk.

Liles opened the game’s scoring with a blast from the high slot through a screen just 3:10 into the game. Ryan Smyth prevented Detroit netminder Ty Conklin from getting a read on the puck.

Filppula evened things up with 19 seconds left in the opening period, lifting a rebound chance past Avs goaltender Andrew Raycroft.

Franzen drove to the net and scored on his own rebound to give the Wings a 2-1 lead at 7:03 of the second and Draper banged home a nice feed from Derek Meech 6:30 later.

Hejduk scored with Raycroft on the bench for an extra attacker in the game’s final minutes but Colorado was unable to tie the game.

Conklin finished the night with 25 saves on 27 shots while Raycroft stopped 27 of 30 shots against.

---

The Red Wings were without Marian Hossa, who sat out after being injured Tuesday night in St. Louis.