• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Franzen scores shootout clincher in Red Wings' win

Mar 7, 2007 - 5:08 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Thanks to Johan Franzen's shootout goal, the Detroit Red Wings celebrated a pair of milestones.

Franzen netted the shootout clincher and defenseman Mathieu Schneider scored his 200th career goal for the Red Wings in a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators.

The triumph was the 100th for coach Mike Babcock, who needed just 149 games to become the second-fastest coach to reach the mark with the same team. Tom Johnson took only 138 contests to set the NHL record with the Boston Bruins in the early 1970's.

"When you start to get 800 or 900, then you can start talking," Babcock said. "In the meantime, it's not much."

Detroit (42-16-9) raised its home mark to 15-0-2 in its last 17 contests at Joe Louis Arena and moved within one point of Nashville (44-18-6) for the best record in the Western Conference.

"We just want to get better as a team," Schneider said. "We want to become a better and better playoff team. I think we've done that. We're competing every night. We play our best games in situations like this, when we're competing. They're hard-fought games and we seem to rise to the occasion."

The shootout was tied, 1-1, until the fourth round when Franzen gave Detroit the edge with a shot over goaltender Tomas Vokoun's right pad.

"I don't think most of the guys expect me to score," Franzen said. "Nothing to lose, really. A lot of guys are gone and I've been doing pretty good in practice, so I had a chance."

"He (has) been working on his breakaways in practice so it was great to see him get the game-winner," Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood said. "That's one of the moves, high glove. He (has) been working on so it was nice to see him have a shot."

Martin Erat had one last chance to prolong the contest, but his attempt was stopped by Osgood to preserve the win.

"We've been snakebitten in overtime this year," Osgood said. "Last year, we had a great record in overtime. This year, we can't seem to get one in overtime. It's nice to break that one and get rolling in the shootouts and overtime."

"It was a hard game to win," Babcock said. "We were able to come through in the shootout. (Osgood) made some big saves and we have some guys shooting who don't normally shoot."

Nashville defenseman Greg Zanon tied the score, 3-3, with 8:18 remaining in regulation when his shot from the left point bounced off the shoulder and the right elbow of Osgood before trickling into the net. It was his second tally of the season.

"The way my luck (is) going, it actually hits me and actually rolls over me on the backspin," Osgood said. "I was a little perturbed at that. More bad luck than anything. I would have hoped it would have hit me and went forward. That was frustrating."

Trailing, 2-1, Detroit tied the score at 12:30 of the second period when Robert Lang netted his 16th tally of the season on a rebound of Kyle Calder's shot past goaltender Vokoun.

Schneider reached his milestone just 25 seconds later on a breakaway by flipping the puck from the slot into the top right corner of the net. It was his 11th goal of the campaign.

"For a defenseman, that's a ton of goals," Babcock said. "(Nicklas) Lidstrom just got it the other night. That's how good this guy (has) been. He (is) just a few assists away from hitting a career high. That's amazing for the amount of games he (has) missed. Some guys are like fine wine. They get better with age."

"I got back to the bench and (Lidstrom) said, 'Welcome to the club, kid.'" Schneider said. "I said, 'I just missed you by two games.'"

Pavel Datsyuk netted his 20th goal in the first period and Osgood made 24 saves for Detroit, which is 24-3-5 at home this season.

Erat had a goal and an assist and Vokoun stopped 32 shots for the Predators, who went 3-0-2 on their five-game road trip.

"We had some good chances in the last five minutes and in overtime and after that, anything can happen in a shootout," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We were down to four defenseman for a while, so it's good to get out with a point."

"We've been shorthanded the whole road trip but guys have showed a lot of character," Predators right wing J.P. Dumont said. "I'm real happy with our team right now."