Detroit Red Wings get major comeback, edge St. Louis Blues in shootout 3-2 -NHL Update
St. Louis have up a huge 2-0 lead in the second half of the final period as Detroit Red Wings managed to climb back and edge the Blues, 3-2, in a shootout decider on Wednesday night, April 4, 2012, at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Despite being one of the highest ranked teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) at the moment, St. Louis just cannot maintain their lead once another team attempts to comeback especially if the contest heads out of regulation.
Detroit had a disappointing performance during the month of March as they won only four of 14 matchups and risked falling down in the Western Conference rankings dramatically. Coming into April, Detroit is currently on a two-game winning streak, both coming from shootouts.
"I just think we try to do things right," Todd Bertuzzi said, who scored the only shootout goal on Brian Elliott. "We try to play the game the right way. Obviously [owners Mike and Marian Ilitch] and [general manager] Kenny Holland are doing a tremendous job bringing people who they drafted and all that. It's been a staple of our organization to be competitive every year."
Jimmy Howard also had a spectacular performance in net for Detroit as he blocked all shootout attempts along with 27 shots in regulation.
David Perron broke the silence with their first of the night while being shorthanded as Ryan Reaves was booked with a major for boarding and a game misconduct. Perron charged capitalised on a turnover while charging towards the net, potting the puck with a backhander through Howard.
Andy McDonald seemed to have secured the match for St. Louis as he stole the puck from Detroit in their own defensive end and fired it past Howard, making it 2-0 with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Johan Franzen added two back-to-back, both assisted by Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi, to level the game at the 16:10 mark and force the post-regulation competition.
Detroit Red Wings will now be returning home to host New Jersey Devils on Thursday while St. Louis Blues host Phoenix Coyotes on Friday.
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