Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom scored the winning goal late in the third period to keep the Red Wings ahead of the Calgary Flames in the race for the final Western Conference playoff berth with a 2-1 victory on Monday.
Starting the day holding on to eighth place in the conference, the Red Wings stretched their advantage over the Flames to three points with late goals in the final two periods to overturn an early deficit.
Calgary took the lead less than two minutes into the first period on Craig Conroy’s strike before Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk tied the game with his fifth goal in six games, slamming home a wrist shot with 50 seconds remaining in the second.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The game was heading for overtime until Holmstrom redirected team mate Johan Franzen’s shot past Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff with one minute, 19 seconds remaining.
Kiprusoff had 26 saves while Jimmy Howard finished with 22 saves for Detroit, who are trying to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since the 1989 to 1990 season.
DEVILS 3, BRUINS 2
David Clarkson had a goal and an assist as the New Jersey Devils scored three times in the first period against Tim Thomas and held on to beat the Boston Bruins.
Clarkson took the shot that Rob Niedermayer deflected in and then scored on a breakaway to make in 2-0. Zach Parise finished the barrage.
Blake Wheeler scored for the third consecutive game to cut Boston’s deficit to 3-1 at 43 seconds of the middle period.
BLUE JACKETS 5, OILERS 3
At Columbus, Ohio, Antoine Vermette had two assists and scored the clinching empty-netter, while Kristian Huselius added a goal and three assists for Columbus.
Jake Voracek, Chris Clark and Marc Methot also scored for the Blue Jackets. Derek Dorsett chipped in with two assists for the first multipoint game of his 91-game career.
Robert Nilsson and Aaron Johnson each had a goal and an assist and Dustin Penner also scored for the Oilers.
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