Hossa's OT Blast Seals Win Over Red Wings
DETROIT (AP) - Marian Hossa scored on a power play 51 seconds into overtime, lifting the Chicago Blackhawks to a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night.
Henrik Zetterberg was called for hooking Patrick Kane with 3.7 seconds left, putting Chicago on the power play to begin the extra session. The Blackhawks took advantage on Hossa's shot from the left circle - his first goal against Detroit as an ex-Red Wing - off a pass from Kane.
The defending Stanley Cup champions improved their precarious playoff positioning with their third win in four games. They began the night in eighth place, barely ahead of idle Calgary and Dallas and one point behind Anaheim, which hosted Colorado late Monday.
Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook scored in the first period to give Chicago a 2-1 lead that held up until Danny Cleary was credited with a goal early in the third. Zetterberg appeared to score the second tying goal of the game on a shot that went off Chicago defenseman Chris Campoli.
Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom made it 1-all in the first period and became the NHL's first 40-year-old defenseman with 60 points in a season.
Corey Crawford made 33 saves for the Blackhawks.
Detroit's Joey MacDonald stopped 38 shots while starting in place of Jimmy Howard, who has a balky left shoulder but might play Wednesday at home against the St. Louis Blues.
The Blackhawks improved to 15-6-4 in March and February after barely being over .500 in each of the first four months of the season, giving their salary-cap depleted team a shot to defend the Stanley Cup when the playoffs start in two weeks.
The Red Wings, meanwhile, are in a slump that has trimmed their cushion in the Central Division over Nashville with six games left for both teams.
Both teams were missing one of their leading scorers.
Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk was out for a fifth straight game with a lower body injury and Chicago's Patrick Sharp for the third game in a row with an injured left knee that might keep him out for the rest of the regular season.
The Red Wings had to play much of the night without Todd Bertuzzi, who was called for a 5-minute elbowing penalty and a game misconduct for hitting Ryan Johnson in the head 5:17 into the game. Johnson went down to his knees and gloves for a while before slowly getting up. He went off the ice and toward the dressing room, but played later in the first period.
Toews scored off a rebound and Lidstrom tied it with vintage slap shot between the left circle and blue line midway through the first period. He surpassed the mark set by Ray Bourque, who had 59 points as a 40-year-old defenseman during the 2000-01 season - his last - with the Colorado Avalanche.
Chicago went back ahead on Seabrook's shot off a cross-crease pass from Kane at the 13:18 mark of the first.
After a scoreless second period, the Red Wings got some puck luck when Zetterberg's shot went off an opponent and got past Crawford 2:25 into the third.
Both teams had plenty of scoring chances the rest of the game, but Crawford and MacDonald held up for the rest of regulation.
NOTES: Hossa, in his second season with the Blackhawks after one year with the Red Wings, hadn't scored against Detroit since his hat trick on Jan. 15, 2008, while playing for Atlanta. ... Chicago has won three of four against Detroit heading into their home-and-home series on April 8 and 10 that ends the regular season. ... MacDonald was sent to the minors and recalled twice this month because Chris Osgood was unable to come back from hernia surgery. ... The Blackhawks scratched Dave Bolland for the seventh straight game because of a concussion. ... Detroit's Johan Franzen returned to the lineup after missing four games with a groin injury and whiffed on two scoring chances on a sequence late in regulation.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
