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Brassard leads Rangers past Red Wings in OT

Nov 6, 2014 - 6:34 AM New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Derick Brassard scored the game-winning goal in overtime to send the New York Rangers to a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.

After Pavel Datsyuk went off for tripping, New York's Dan Girardi unleashed a blast from the point. Jonas Gustavsson made the initial save, but the rebound trickled across the crease to Brassard, who was present at the right side of the net to wrist it home for the win.

"We knew from the beginning we were facing a pretty good team playing some good hockey, but we found a way," said Brassard. "We made some hockey plays there and it is what it is. In overtime, we had the chance to get it done."

Martin St. Louis and Brassard finished with a goal and an assist apiece and Rick Nash and Lee Stempniak both scored for the Rangers, who snapped a two- game skid.

Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves in the win.

Jakub Kindl, Daniel Cleary and Tomas Tatar each lit the lamp for Detroit, which lost its third straight game.

"It was good to get the point. We really wanted to get the win, it was important for us, but these are games you look back on," Cleary said.

Gustavsson sustained an upper-body injury on the final goal. The netminder stayed down on the ice for a prolonged period of time before skating off under his own power. He finished with 26 saves.

Dominic Moore moved the puck quickly on a 2-on-1 to Stempniak, who finished off the play with a wrist shot past a diving Gustavsson for a 3-2 lead with 7:50 remaining in regulation.

Detroit pulled the goalie with just under three minutes to go and sent the game into overtime on Tatar's power-play goal with 7.7 seconds left. Kindl's shot from the point never made it to the net. Andrej Nestrasil grabbed the rebound and sent a cross-ice feed to Tatar, who buried a wrister into the back of the net to tie the game at 3-3.

The Rangers opened the scoring 6:36 into the first on the power play. Brassard unleashed a slap shot from the top of the left circle and Nash was present in the crease to deflect it past Gustavsson for his 10th goal of the season.

Kevin Klein dove into the net and covered the puck with his glove in the crease on a frantic sequence, resulting in a penalty shot for Detroit 5:51 into the second. Gustav Nyquist quickly skated up the slot, but Lundqvist threw up his glove and deflected the puck over the net.

New York, which gained momentum off its netminder's big stop, made it 2-0 less than a minute later. St. Louis kicked Matt Hunwick's stretch pass out of his skates, skated in on a breakaway and beat Gustavsson with a shot through the five-hole.

Riley Sheahan forced a turnover off Klein at the right circle and left the puck for Kindl, who trimmed the deficit in half with a snap shot on the power play at 12:02 of the middle stanza.

The Red Wings tied the game 16 seconds later. Cleary's shot from a severe angle along the left boards went under Lundqvist's arm and into the net. Play continued, however, as the goal was initially waved off. It was quickly ruled a goal upon video review once there was a stoppage in play.

Gustavsson preserved the tie with a point-blank glove save on Nash with 1:19 left in the second.

Game Notes

Cleary played in his first game of the season and tallied his first goal since Jan. 11 ... The Rangers have won five straight games against the Red Wings, matching a similar streak from Jan. 3, 1983 to Jan. 16, 1984 ... Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault coached his 900th NHL game ... Gustavsson made his first start since Oct. 25 against Philadelphia ... Detroit hasn't won at Madison Square Garden since Dec. 6, 2009 ... New York has played in three consecutive overtime games. The last time this occurred was from Mar. 19-25, 2008.