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Franzen leads Red Wings to victory over Coyotes

Mar 11, 2009 - 4:09 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Johan Franzen's goal at 3:35 of overtime Tuesday lifted the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes.

Franzen added an assist, Valtteri Filppula scored a goal and set up another and defenseman Brian Rafalski also tallied for Detroit, which has won 23 consecutive home games when scoring first.

Ty Conklin made 23 saves en route to his 13th straight home victory for the Red Wings, who have won five of seven overall.

"We've played well at home, and I've certainly benefited from it," Conklin said. "We'd like to carry it over to the road games, but we feel comfortable here. You have to feel comfortable in your own rink to be successful."

"Maybe we'll play him at home and (Chris) Osgood on the road," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.

Martin Hanzal and captain Shane Doan scored for Phoenix, which has dropped three straight (0-2-1) and six of seven (1-5-1).

"We did a lot of good things," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "It was good to come back and get the tie at the end. A little disappointed that we didn't get the win, but all in all, I thought our guys played pretty hard."

Filppula opened the scoring just 78 seconds into the contest, receiving a cross-slot pass from Franzen and beating goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to the stick side from the left faceoff circle.

"It was a good 3-on-2, and Mule made a good pass to me," Filppula said. "I was by myself with the goalie. I tried to shoot high and it went in."

Hanzal jammed the puck past Conklin with 3:47 remaining in the second to forge a 1-1 tie, but Rafalski fired a shot by Bryzgalov from the left circle off a cross-slot feed from Pavel Datsyuk during a power play midway through the third to restore Detroit's advantage.

"We'd been waiting a long time for the power play, and when you get it that late in the game, you want to take advantage of it," Rafalski said. "I was looking to put something over (Bryzgalov's) pad. When we've beaten him this year, a lot of the goals have been in that area. I had enough time to get my head up and take a look. It was an ugly goal, but I'll take it."

Just 74 seconds later, however, Jovanovski wristed a shot from the blue line that Doan deflected past Conklin for a man-advantage tally, again knotting the contest.

"We found a way to tie it up on the power play," Doan said. "That was a huge goal. They outshot us pretty good, but in the third period, I thought we played pretty well. I thought we controlled the play a little bit better."

It was the team-leading 25th goal of the campaign for Doan, who tied Thomas Steen for second place on the franchise list by appearing in his 950th game with the organization.

In overtime, Franzen skated from the top of the right circle to the high slot before beating Bryzgalov to the glove side with a wrister for his 27th goal of the season.

"The D dropped back, so I got some room up high so I could take it to the middle," Franzen said. "Big B (defenseman Brad Stuart) made a good screen on the goal. It's hard to see over him, so I guess maybe I should thank him for the goal."

Bryzgalov turned aside 40 shots for the Coyotes, who fell to 1-2-1 on their five-game road trip.