Franzen Scores Twice but Red Wings Fall to Capitals in Shootout

Johan Franzen scored twice and added an assist on Friday night but it wasn’t enough for the Detroit Red Wings, who dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to the Washington Capitals.

It was Detroit’s fifth loss in a row and their seventh consecutive home loss. Their last five home losses have come in overtime or the shootout.

Nicklas Backstrom scored the only goal of the tiebreaker to give the Capitals the victory. Washington goalie Braden Holtby stopped Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen and Todd Bertuzzi while Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard stopped Mikhail Grabovski and Alex Ovechkin before Backstrom won it.

The Red Wings had carried a 3-1 lead into the third period but couldn’t hold on.

Just 3:19 into the period, Ovechkin snapped a shot from low in the right faceoff circle between the legs of defender Niklas Kronwall and past Howard to make it 3-2.

Michael Latta tied things up with 8:06 remaining when Howard got spun around after coming out to stop a John Carlson chance. The puck came to Latta on the far side of the crease and he shoveled a backhander into the vacated net.

Before they closed out the scoring, the Capitals opened it at 5:50 of the first when Brooks Laich swatted his own rebound past Howard on a partial breakaway after a Detroit turnover in the neutral zone.

Franzen would get the Red Wings on the board with 4:08 remaining in the period. On a power play, Franzen carried the puck along the left wing boards and cut into the faceoff circle, snapping a shot off the post and into the top corner through a screen by Tomas Tatar to make it 1-1.

Before the period was out it would be 2-1, as Franzen took a crossing feed from Tatar to put a shot off Holtby’s pad and into the back of the net from the bottom of the right circle with 1:50 remaining.

With 18 seconds remaining in the second period, Danny DeKeyser would give Detroit their 3-1 lead. Franzen fed DeKeyser in the left circle for a shot into the open side of the net on a Red Wings’ power play.

Detroit finished the night with two goals on five power play tries. Washington was scoreless on for attempts with the extra attacker.

Howard made 30 saves on 33 shots while Holtby stopped 34 of 37 chances.

The Red Wings are right back at it on Saturday when they visit the New York Islanders.

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The game marked the return from injury of defenseman Jonathan Ericsson… To make room for Ericsson under the salary cap, Patrick Eaves and Luke Glendening were sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins, joining Jordin Tootoo and Xavier Ouellet, who were sent down on Thursday… Daniel Alfredsson missed the game with a groin injury, causing the Red Wings to play with only 17 skaters.