Red Wings Reach Milestones in Shootout Win over Coyotes

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13 years ago

Two members of the Detroit Red Wings reached career milestones with the team’s 3-2 shootout win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday night.

Goaltender Jimmy Howard, who stopped Lauri Korpikoski on the final shot of the tiebreaker to preserve the win, picked up the 100th victory of his career. In 171 NHL games, he is now 100-47-16.

It was the 400th career win for Detroit head coach Mike Babcock. He started his career with 69 wins across two seasons for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and has picked up 331 more in six seasons with the Red Wings.

Additionally, Danny Cleary picked up his 200th career assist on Detroit’s third-period tying goal.

Henrik Zetterberg’s shootout goal ended up being the difference in the game. In the fourth round Zetterberg used the “Forsberg Move” to beat Phoenix netminder Mike Smith, drawing Smith to his right before reaching back and poking the puck into the open side of the net with one hand on his stick.

Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the Red Wings, beating Smith glove side. Radim Vrbata faked out Jimmy Howard for Phoenix’s lone shootout tally. Smith made saves on both Jiri Hudler and Valtteri Filppula while Howard stopped Gilbert Brule, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Korpikoski.

The Coyotes had opened the game’s scoring at 9:41 of the first period, when Vrbata carried the puck from his own blue line into the Detroit end and snapped a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle past Howard.

Filppula blasted a shot from the high slot past Smith with 51 seconds left in the opening frame to tie things back up.

After a scoreless second period, Taylor Pyatt put Phoenix back in front at 3:02 of the third. Kyle Chipchura drove down the right wing and cut to the net, with Howard making the initial stop. Pyatt was right there to chip the rebound over Howard, though, making it 2-1.

The Red Wings rallied again with 9:57 left in regulation. Johan Franzen snuck to the far side of the crease all alone and Datsyuk hit him with a pass from the right wing boards for a tip past Smith.

Smith finished the night with 40 saves on 42 Detroit shots. Howard stopped 25 of the 27 chances he faced.

Neither team scored a power play goal on the night, each having two tries with the extra attacker.

The Red Wings are back in action when they host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon.

Pavel Datsyuk and Jan Mursak each returned from injury for the game. Datsyuk had missed the previous game with a sore groin while Mursak had yet to play this season, recovering from a broken leg… Todd Bertuzzi was the scratched forward for the Red Wings… Mike Commodore was the scratch on defense.