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Franzen nets two as Red Wings edge Senators

Oct 12, 2008 - 3:47 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Johan Franzen scored a pair of goals in the third period to lift the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 comeback victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

Valtteri Filppula also tallied and Chris Osgood made 20 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings, who recorded their first win of the season.

"Obviously, getting two points on the road against a team like Ottawa is a good result for us," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "And winning a hockey game in come-from-behind fashion like that is something we can put in our pocket and take out of here."

Defenseman Alexandre Picard and Nick Foligno scored for the Senators, who were playing their first game in North America after facing the Pittsburgh Penguins twice in Stockholm, Sweden last weekend.

"We scored on the power play and got some scoring from our second line," said Ottawa's Dany Heatley, who was serving as captain in the absence of the injured Daniel Alfredsson. "When you do those things, you put yourself in position to win hockey games. Unfortunately, tonight we came up short."

Franzen tied the game at 2-2 with 8:44 remaining in regulation and notched the game-winner with 77 seconds to play.

Detroit was controlling the play throughout but faced a 2-1 deficit well into the final session until Franzen's heroics.

Nicknamed "The Mule," Franzen carried the puck down the left wing and fired a shot from the top of the faceoff circle into the top corner of the net past goaltender Martin Gerber, who finished with 38 saves.

"Franzen does the little things well and just keeps getting better year after year," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "He showed what he can do last year in the playoffs, and he's off to a great start for us this year."

Franzen struck again with a similar play on the opposite side of the ice. Skating down the right side, Franzen floated a wrist shot that trickled past Gerber.

"The shot hit their defenseman first, and that might have fooled (Gerber) a little bit," Franzen said. "In close games like that, we always talk about taking shots when we have the opportunity, and that's what I did. When you shoot the puck, good things can happen."

Despite multiple icings by Detroit, which was looking for an empty-netter in the final minute, Ottawa failed to create a serious scoring chance to tie the game.

"It's frustrating," Senators center Jason Spezza said. "That's a game that we have to win 2-1, but we had a couple of breakdowns that cost us."

Henrik Zetterberg collected two assists for the Red Wings, who outshot the Senators by a 41-22 margin.