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Filppula nets game-winner as Red Wings beat Oilers

Oct 31, 2007 - 6:00 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- It took some time, but the Detroit Red Wings eventually found their offense.

Valtteri Filppula knocked in the game-winner with 24 seconds remaining in the third period to give the Red Wings a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.

Henrik Zetterberg scored and Chris Osgood stopped 15 shots for Detroit, which has won six straight games.

"They played a tough game," Zetterberg said. "We didn't have our A-game and we didn't get going. It was a little tight on the legs I think today but we found a way to pull it out. It wasn't a great game but it was a good win."

Filppula snapped a 1-1 tie late in the third period when Pavel Datsyuk slipped a pass to the Finn just across center ice. Filppula streaked down the right side around three Edmonton defenders and wristed a shot past goaltender Dwayne Roloson for the game-winner.

"It feels good, I don't think I had a really good game," Filppula said. "I think I played not that well and it was kind of good to get something good out of it. Obviously it's good to get the win."

The assist gave Datsyuk 12 on the season, tying him with Zetterberg for second in the league.

"We had a bad change on the play too and the lane was occupied and we changed with the rush coming at us and exposed the lane and they got caught having to defend the wide lane," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said of Filppula's goal.

On paper this contest looked like a mismatch, with the Red Wings boasting the NHL's best offense and the Oilers countering with the worst defense in the Western Conference. Entering Tuesday's contest, Edmonton was allowing a West-worst 3.33 goals per game.

Roloson, however, was hot early, stopping 13 shots in the first period. He finished with 32 saves.

"He played well, he played really well," MacTavish said of Roloson. "They threw a lot of rubber at him. When you play Detroit it seems like the same manager every night where you don't feel good about the way that you play and you turn pucks over tons of times and you have to attribute that to their checking ability and their patience on the puck."

The Red Wings finally broke through four minutes into the second period when Zetterberg banged home his 10th goal of the season, tying for the NHL lead.

"On the road, it's not that bad to win by a goal," Zetterberg said. "It's not an easy team to play against here. If you don't have that extra in you, it's tough to win by more than one, and sometimes it's good enough to win by one and tonight it was."

Defenseman Brian Rafalski found captain Niklas Lidstrom at the left faceoff circle. Lidstrom fired a pass across the front to the right circle and Zetterberg one-timed a shot past Roloson for a 1-0 advantage.

The goal gave Zetterberg at least one point in each of Detroit's 13 games to start the season.

Edmonton countered one minute and 49 seconds later off a faceoff in the Red Wings end. Jarret Stoll won the faceoff and dropped the puck back to defenseman Steve Staios, who ripped a shot from the blue line through traffic and over the right shoulder of Osgood.

But that was all the offense the Oilers could muster against Osgood, who is now 6-0-0 as a starter and has yet to allow more than two goals in a game.

"I think it started all the way back with Osgood," Zetterberg said. "He really plays good for us now. He brings so much confidence, we can relax, we know he's going to make the saves and we just keep going and going and going and we know we'll get that break eventually. Today we played with a lot of players and it was a good win and an important win for us. We've got one left in the road trip and then we go home."