Dan Cleary scored with just 2:03 remaining in the third period on Sunday night, carrying the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers.
Cleary sent a shot from along the goal line at New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. With the puck between his pads, Lundqvist spun, inadvertantly knocking it into his own net.
Kris Draper added an empty net goal with the Red Wings on a power play to close out the game.
Despite outshooting the Rangers, Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard had to keep the Wings in the game at several points.
Howard stopped New York’s Ryan Callahan on a penalty shot in the second period while the Rangers still had a 1-0 lead. With the game tied in the third Howard made a series of important stops as Detroit killed off three consecutive penalties.
Brian Boyle opened the game’s scoring with 4:04 remaining in the first period. Boyle tipped a pass from Christopher Higgins past Howard while Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson miscommunicated on the backcheck.
Pavel Datsyuk tied the game back up with 8:01 left in the second, putting home the rebound of a Henrik Zetterberg chance just four seconds after the end of a Detroit power play.
The Red Wings finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play. The Rangers went scoreless on four tries.
Howard made 28 saves on 29 shots against while Lundqvist stopped 28 of 30 Detroit chances.
Brian Rafalski returned to the Wings lineup after missing two games with a back injury, bumping Jakub Kindl back out of the lineup. Ville Leino was the healthy scratch up front with Brad May working back in.
