Four Goal Third Carries Red Wings Past Blues

The Detroit Red Wings scored four goals in a 3:14 span in the third period Wednesday night, lifting them to a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Blues.

The game was tied 3-3 with 7:34 remaining when Danny Cleary scored his second goal of the night, snapping a shot from the right side of the slot past St. Louis goalie Jaroslav Halak off a pass from behind the net by Mike Modano.

Henrik Zetterberg made it 5-3 just 46 seconds later. Zetterberg carried the puck into the St. Louis zone and cut to the left wing boards before circling back through the left faceoff circle and wristing a shot past Halak on the near side.

Brad Stuart’s power play blast gave Detroit a three-goal lead with 5:30 left in the period. Tomas Holmstrom rounded out the scoring with a power play deflection of a Brian Rafalski shot 1:10 later.

Drew Miller was credited with the game’s first goal when Halak stopped his shot, then swatted the puck out of the air and into his own net in an attempt to clear the rebound.

Brad Boyes tied things up 1:32 later, sliding a backhander under Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard’s pad.

Brad Winchester’s power play goal made it 2-1 for St. Louis at 8:16 of the second period. Winchester jammed the puck home from in front of the net off a feed from Andy McDonald.

Justin Abdelkader redirected a Rafalski pass between Halak’s pads with 6:18 left in the period to tie the game back up.

Cleary’s first of the night put Detroit back up with 3:30 remaining in the second but McDonald replied 37 seconds later to make it 3-3.

St. Louis outshot the Red Wings 36-31 but Howard made 33 saves to Halak’s 24, including a toe save with less than a second remaining in the first period and the game tied.

The Red Wings were two-for-five on the power play. The Blues went one-for-three.

The seven goals scored is Detroit’s highest offensive output of the season.