Miller Scores Late to Carry Red Wings Past Oilers

Drew Miller scored his fourth goal in five games with 4:15 left in the third period Monday night, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

It was the second time this season that Miller scored the game-winning goal against Edmonton, as he had previously scored Detroit’s first goal in a 3-0 win over the Oilers on November 11.

Darren Helm won a battle in the right corner with Ladislav Smid and sent the puck out to Nicklas Lidstrom at the left point. Lidstrom fired a shot that Miller tipped in the slot, redirecting it past Edmonton goalie Nikolai Khabibulin.

Danny Cleary had opened the game’s scoring at 4:33 of the first period.

After a broken play in the right faceoff circle saw a series of shots blocked before they could get through to Khabibulin, the puck squirted out to Jakub Kindl at the top of the circle. Kindl snapped a shot that Cleary deflected past Khabibulin to get the Red Wings on the board.

The Oilers tied things back up at 2:37 of the second, when Ryan Jones broke in alone on netminder Jimmy Howard and snapped a shot past him to make it 1-1.

Detroit regained the lead with 5:24 left in the middle frame. Jiri Hudler parked himself in front of the Edmonton crease and tipped a Henrik Zetterberg shot from the slot past Khabibulin.

With less than a second remaining and Edmonton on a power play, Jordan Eberle jumped on a loose puck in the high slot and whipped it past Howard to tie things back up heading into the second intermission.

Eberle’s goal was the only power play goal of the night. Edmonton had five tries with the extra attacker while the Red Wings had two.

Howard finished the night with 21 saves on 23 shots against. Khabibulin made 25 stops on 28 shots.

The Wings continue their road trip through Western Canada on Wednesday when they visit the Vancouver Canucks.