Lidstrom’s First Hat Trick Carries Red Wings over Blues

Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom scored the first hat trick of his twenty-year NHL career Wednesday night, leading the Red Wings to a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Lidstrom opened and closed the scoring for the Red Wings as they looked to rebound from a 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.

After a scoreless first period, Lidstrom got Detroit on the board with a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle 4:02 into the second. Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk gained the St. Louis zone before Lidstrom jumped into the play, taking a pass from Zetterberg and slapping a shot past Blues netminder Jaroslav Halak.

Carlo Colaiacovo responded just 1:18 later for St. Louis. Colaiacovo gave the puck off to Dave Scatchard as he gained the Detroit zone, drove to the net, and got the puck back to put a backhander past Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard.

Niklas Kronwall put Detroit back up with 3:53 remaining in the period, snapping a shot from the high slot past Halak just after the expiration of a St. Louis penalty.

The Red Wings made it 3-1 just 1:31 later, when Danny Cleary tapped in the rebound of a Lidstrom shot on the power play.

Lidstrom’s second of the night gave Detroit a three-goal lead at 2:26 of the third. He blasted a shot from the blue line past Halak on another power play.

Brad Winchester tipped an Alex Steen shot past Howard at 6:42 of the period to give the Blues a power play goal of their own and cut the lead back down to two.

Lidstrom wrapped up the hat trick with an empty net goal with 30 seconds remaining.

The Red Wings finished the night two-for-five on the power play. St. Louis went one-for-three.

Halak stopped 32 of the 36 shots he faced on the night while Howard made 19 saves on 21 St. Louis chances.

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Kris Draper was back in the Detroit lineup, with Drew Miller out to make room in the lineup.