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Lidstrom's game-winner helps Red Wings edge Flames

Dec 11, 2008 - 5:06 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Curtis McElhinney was anything but rusty in his first appearance in nearly a month, but he was unable to halt the Detroit Red Wings' latest winning streak.

Captain Nicklas Lidstrom scored the game-winning goal with 70 seconds left in overtime Wednesday, leading the Red Wings to a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Valtteri Filppula, Henrik Zetterberg and defenseman Brian Rafalski also scored for Detroit, which rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 to record its fourth straight victory.

"When you're as skilled as we are, you sometimes forget to work and compete," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "That's what I told them between the second and third periods. I'd like to see that comeback ability right from when the puck's dropped and play for 60 minutes."

Ty Conklin made 29 saves en route to his second win over Calgary this season, while Daniel Cleary and Johan Franzen added two assists apiece.

"We've had a couple of games now where we didn't play our best in the first and we dug ourselves out of a hole," Conklin said. "We don't want to get in the habit of doing that. We all believe that no matter what kind of a hole we dig for ourselves, we can get out of it, but I think we all agree we need to be a little better from start to finish."

Craig Conroy, Daymond Langkow and David Moss tallied for the Flames. McElhinney was stellar in just his third career start, turning aside 35 shots in the losing effort.

Lidstrom took a drop pass from Franzen just inside the blue line and slapped a shot past McElhinney, beating the seldom-used netminder to the stick side for the winning goal.

"Franzen made a great play entering their zone with the puck," Lidstrom said. "He turned up and beat his guy with the pass on the wall. I'm just trying to hit that far side because (McElhinney) was a little screened."

The win was the 250th of Babcock's career, but McElhinney made sure the milestone victory did not come easy.

"I've been lucky here in Detroit to have real good players," Babcock said. "That gives you a chance to win a lot of games. We're trying to develop a style of hockey that we can play in the spring and be successful."

The 25-year-old McElhinney was making just his third appearance this season and first since coming on in relief of Miikka Kiprusoff against San Jose on November 13.

McElhinney made 10 saves in the first period and 12 in the second as Calgary carried a 2-1 lead into the third. A power-play goal by Moss at 8:51 extended the lead to 3-1, but the Red Wings staged a rally with a pair of tallies over the next five minutes.

"Pretty relaxed," McElhinney said of his attitude coming into the game. "But I was expecting a lot of shots and a lot of traffic."

Zetterberg smacked in the rebound off a shot by Cleary just 60 seconds after Moss' goal, and Rafalski scored on a slap shot with 6:17 remaining in regulation to knot the contest at 3-3.

"It's a disappointment, certainly, when you give up a two-goal lead in this building that you've worked so hard to gain," Calgary coach Mike Keenan said. "It is disappointing. We had the opportunity to come out of here with two points. But in the context of the scheduling, four games in six nights, three different time zones, 3:30 (a.m.) arrival at the hotel, we'll go home with a point."

After road wins against St. Louis and the New York Rangers last weekend, Calgary fell in Montreal and Detroit on consecutive nights.

The Flames, who were in search of their first win in Detroit since December 1, 2005, used a pair of goals late in the first period to jump in front.

Conroy snapped a 14-game goalless drought to open the scoring with 4:57 left in the first. His shot deflected off the stick of Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and past Conklin.

With 51 seconds left in the opening period, Langkow slapped home the rebound of Todd Bertuzzi's shot to double the advantage.

Filppula tipped in a shot by Kris Draper 6:59 into the second to draw the Red Wings within 2-1.