Red Wings Rally but Fall to Wild in OT

The Detroit Red Wings rallied back from down 2-0 Friday night, taking a 3-2 lead before the Minnesota Wild mounted a comeback of their own to win 4-3 in overtime.

The Red Wings were trailing 2-0 when Justin Abdelkader brought the puck out front from behind the net and sent a cross-crease pass to Darren Helm for a tap-in with 34 seconds left in the second period.

Johan Franzen tied the game at 2:37 of the third period, throwing the puck on net from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. It bounced off defenseman Greg Zanon and past goalie Jose Theodore for a power play goal.

Patrick Eaves put the Red Wings in front 2:38 later on a wraparound after picking up the rebound of his own chance from in front.

Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu tied the game back up with 1:23 remaining in regulation. Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard directed the rebound of a Nick Schultz shot right to Koivu in the slot to put it back past Howard.

With 52 seconds left in the extra period, John Madden drove to the net and put the rebound of a Martin Havlat deflection past Howard to win the game for the Wild.

Brent Burns had opened the scoring at 8:16 of the first, sending a seeing-eye shot from the top of the right faceoff circle through traffic and past Howard.

Cal Clutterbuck made it 2-0 1:25 into the second, sneaking a bad-angle shot in between the post and Howard’s pad.

Howard finished the night with 23 saves on 27 shots. Theodore stopped 41 of the 44 shots he faced.

Minnesota’s top-ranked power play did not score on three tries, though Burns’ goal came three seconds after the expiration of a Detroit penalty. The Red Wings scored once on four power play chances, including a lengthy five-on-three.