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Third-period rally pushes Red Wings past Coyotes

Dec 2, 2007 - 4:00 AM By Chuck Klonke PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DETROIT (Ticker) -- It didn't take the Detroit Red Wings long to make amends for a poor second period.

Henrik Zetterberg and Daniel Cleary scored in the first 5:04 of the third period to lift the Red Wings to a 3-2 victory Saturday over the Phoenix Coyotes.

The loss was the third straight and second in as many nights for the Coyotes, while the Red Wings won their third in a row.

Despite being pleased with the win, Detroit coach Mike Babcock was not impressed with how it was achieved.

"I've never seen a win I didn't like, but it wasn't a very pretty effort on our part," he said. "(The Coyotes) didn't play very well last night, and all of our players saw it. You can't lie to them. I knew this morning we were in for it. It wasn't one bit of a surprise."

Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom admitted the team talked about being ready for the game beforehand.

"We knew they'd be ready to play," the reigning Norris Trophy winner said. "We played well in the first period but then got away from our system in the second. Fortunately, we got it back together in the third."

Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky was satisfied with his club's effort after a 6-1 loss at Chicago a night earlier.

"We played pretty hard tonight and matched up well against a pretty good hockey team," Gretzky said. "We had a couple of breakdowns, a couple of unfortunate miscues, but overall, our effort was pretty solid. We cycled down low, we did a lot of good things. It's a young team, and every day is a new day for this team. It's a tough loss for this group."

Phoenix goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who stopped 36 shots, fell to 4-3-0 since being claimed off waivers from Anaheim on November 17. He won his first four starts with the Coyotes but fell to Minnesota on Wednesday and yielded five goals on seven shots at Chicago on Friday.

With Detroit trailing after two periods for just the fourth time this season, Zetterberg scored his 17th goal just 39 seconds into the third - two seconds after Phoenix defenseman Ed Jovanovski's holding penalty expired. Bryzgalov stopped blue-liner Brian Rafalski's initial shot but could not control the rebound, allowing Zetterberg to chip it in and forge a 2-2 tie.

"I tried to get it on the net," Zetterberg said. "It took a funny bounce and bounced in. Every night is not going to go your way. The most important thing is, we got the two points."

Cleary put the Red Wings ahead at 5:04 with a power-play goal. Bryzgalov made the save on defenseman Niklas Kronwall's shot from the point, but Jiri Hudler poked the rebound to Cleary, who lifted the puck over the netminder's left shoulder from the left faceoff circle for a 3-2 lead.

The Coyotes, who trailed, 1-0, and were outshot, 15-7, after the first period, came alive with a pair of goals in the middle session.

Rookie Daniel Winnik tied the game at 5:17, when he stripped Detroit defenseman Andreas Lilja of the puck at the top of the left circle in the offensive zone, skated in alone on netminder Chris Osgood and deked before netting his third goal.

Phoenix took the lead with 5:40 remaining on Fredrik Sjostrom's fifth tally of the season. Captain Shane Doan rode Zetterberg off the puck, preventing a clear, and Sjostrom picked it at the bottom of the left circle and one-timed a shot past Osgood.

The game could have gotten out of hand in the first period, but Zetterberg hit the right goalpost in the opening minute and Bryzgalov robbed Pavel Datsyuk after he broke in alone while shorthanded late in the session.

Datsyuk scored his fourth goal in three games at 7:46 of the first, when his pass attempt from low in the right circle deflected off defenseman Keith Ballard and past Brzygalov during a power play.

"We played well 5-on-5, but we got beat on specialty teams," said Doan, whose team went 0-for-3 with the man advantage. "We didn't take advantage of our power plays. They got a goal off a skate and another off a funny bounce."

Osgood made 24 saves as he improved to 13-1-1 and Rafalski recorded two assists for the Red Wings, who have won four straight at home.