Red Wings Rally but Fall to Devils in Shootout

The Detroit Red Wings rallied after falling down 2-0 in the first period Saturday night but could not get past Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils in the shootout, dropping a 4-3 decision.

Brodeur stopped Henrik Zetterberg, Todd Bertuzzi and Ville Leino in the tiebreaker, only allowing a goal to Pavel Datsyuk on Detroit’s first shot.

Patrick Elias won the game for New Jersey, beating Chris Osgood in the fourth round. Zach Parise scored on the Devils’ first attempt before Osgood stopped Jamie Langenbrunner and Travis Zajac.

Langenbrunner and Johnny Oduya put the Devils on the board with goals less than two minutes apart late in the first period.

Langenbrunner opened the scoring with 4:31 left in the period, sneaking in behind the Detroit defense to take a pass from Parise and put it into a wide open net.

Oduya extended the lead 1:56 later, beating Osgood five-hole on an odd-man rush. Osgood got a piece of the shot with his stick but it wasn’t enough to keep it from slipping through.

Kris Draper scored Detroit’s first goal at 9:23 of the second period, crashing the net to bang home the rebound of a Darren Helm shot from the right wing.

The teams traded late-period goals. Rob Niedermayer knocked a loose puck in the crease past Osgood with 5:17 left in the second to restore New Jersey’s two-goal lead. With 30 seconds left in the period, Tomas Holmstrom tipped in a Brad Stuart power play shot to cut the lead back to a goal.

At 9:30 of the third, Patrick Eaves deflected a shot by Justin Abdelkader past Brodeur to tie the game.

Both teams had chances to add another goal in the third. Brad Stuart cleared a puck out of a wide open Detroit crease in the first minute of the period and Brodeur dove on a loose puck in the game’s final seconds, saving almost-sure goals.

Osgood finished the night with 23 saves on 26 shots. Brodeur stopped 28 of Detroit’s 31 chances.

Detroit went 1-for-3 on the power play for the night. New Jersey was 0-for-2.

The Red Wings return to the ice Sunday at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.

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The Red Wings were without Brian Rafalski, who missed his first opportunity to play in New Jersey since leaving the Devils for Detroit in 2007. Jakub Kindl played in his place for the second consecutive game.