Red Wings Hold Off Avalanche in 2-1 Win

The Detroit Red Wings held off a furious finish by the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, picking up a 2-1 win despite a late Colorado goal.

Paul Stastny scored for the Avalanche with 1:30 remaining and the Colorado net empty to pull his team to within a goal. After Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard stopped Stastny’s initial shot from the slot with a toe save, Stastny picked up his own rebound and put a shot off Howard and in to make it 2-1.

Johan Franzen had opened the game’s scoring 7:00 into the second period. After blocking a shot in his own end, Franzen took a long feed from Damien Brunner to break in all alone on Colorado goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, then snapped a shot over his glove and into the top corner.

Niklas Kronwall made it 2-0 on a fluky goal with 2:28 left in the period. Kronwall threw the puck wide of the Colorado net from the blue line, looking for a tip in front. The puck made it through cleanly, though, and bounced off the end boards, coming back out to the side of the net before Giguere kicked it into his own goal.

Giguere finished the night with 31 saves on 33 shots against. Howard stopped 36 of 37 chances.

Neither team scored a power play goal. Detroit had two chances with the extra attacker (including a five-on-three) while Colorado had one.