Red Wings Stay Alive with Overtime Win

Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg scored twice Friday night, including the overtime winner as the Red Wings took a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks to force a Game Seven in their Western Conference Quarterfinal series.

All of Detroit’s wins have come in the extra frame, as the teams met for a fourth overtime engagement. It was the first time in their history that the Red Wings went to overtime in four games in a single series.

Like in Game Two, the Red Wings blew a late third-period lead before being bailed out early in extra time.

Just 1:04 into the overtime, Zetterberg helped Pavel Datsyuk win an offensive-zone draw back to Niklas Kronwall at the point. Kronwall sent it back to Zetterberg along the left wing boards for a blast that found its way through traffic and past Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller to give Detroit the win.

Datsyuk had opened the game’s scoring with 1:12 left in the first period. After Datsyuk controlled the puck for most of a shift in the Anaheim end. Zetterberg fed him with a pass at the right faceoff dot and Datsyuk carried it into the slot, reaching to backhand a shot past Hiller to make it 1-0.

Anaheim tied things back up with 8:29 remaining in the middle period. After a turnover in the neutral zone, Kyle Palmieri fired a shot past Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard but off the post. The puck came out and bounced off defenseman Brendan Smith, right back into the net behind Howard.

Zetterberg’s first of the night put the Red Wings back up at 6:19 of the third period. With Detroit on a power play, Zetterberg rifled a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Hiller for his first goal of the series.

With 8:30 remaining the Red Wings made it 3-1 and seemed to be set to cruise to a Game Seven. Justin Abdelkader – playing in his first game back from a two-game suspension – threw the puck on net from the left wing boards and it deflected off Daniel Cleary and past Hiller to give Detroit a two-goal lead.

The Ducks cut that lead to one goal with 3:28 remaining when Valtteri Filppula sent a drop-pass behind his own net to a teammate who wasn’t there. Emerson Etem grabbed up the loose puck and shoveled it in around Howard’s pad before Howard knew what had happened.

Just 55 seconds later, Corey Perry dumped Kyle Quincey behind the Detroit net to get the puck out to Francois Beauchemin on the right wing. Beauchemin sent it back to the front of the net, where Perry tipped it in on Howard. After the initial stop, Bobby Ryan jumped in to knock home the loose puck and tie things up, 3-3.

Howard finished the night with 34 saves on 37 shots against. Hiller made 25 saves on 29 shots.

Zetterberg’s first goal was the only power play tally of the night. Detroit had three tries with the extra attacker and the Ducks had none.

The teams will meet again on Sunday in Anaheim for the deciding Game Seven of the series.

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With Abdelkader’s return from suspension, Patrick Eaves was a healthy scratch and Mikael Samuelsson was moved down to Eaves’ spot in the lineup… Carlo Colaiacovo made his playoff debut in place of Brian Lashoff, who was sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins to help them in their AHL playoff run.