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Red Wings get Presidential

Subscribe to this feed!  Posted by Matt Schwartz 10:24PM - Thursday, April 03, 2008

Henrik Zetterberg's 43rd goal of the season lifted the Red Wings to a 3-2 comeback victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets and to an NHL-record sixth Presidents' Trophy as the league's top regular season team. Zetterberg's game-winner came with just 12 seconds remaining in the third period when he backhanded the puck from behind the net off goaltender Pascal Leclaire and into the Columbus net.

The Red Wings trailed 2-1 late in the third period until pressure in the offensive zone forced a delay of game penalty on Michael Peca after the forward batted the puck out of play. Detroit wasted little time on the man advantage, with Johan Franzen scoring (again!) on a rebound off a Nicklas Lidstrom point shot at 16:33.

Columbus had scored the go-ahead goal at the 4:05 mark of the third when Aaron Rome's blast from 60-feet beat Dominik Hasek between the pads.

The two clubs traded goals in the second period, with Columbus striking first when defenseman Ron Hainsey's blast from the left faceoff circle beat a screened Hasek to the glove side while on a Blue Jackets power play.

Mark Hartigan, who was in the box when Hainsey scored, made up for it 2:35 later when he slammed home a rebound of Niklas Kronwall's point shot.

Outside of goals by Rome and Zetterberg's game-winner, the game was very much a goaltender's duo. Leclaire was often spectacular in the Columbus net, repeatedly robbing several Red Wings -- most notable Pavel Datsyuk, Jiri Hudler and Dan Cleary.

Hasek's best stop of the night came early in the third period with the Blue Jackets pressing. Sniper Rick Nash was able to slip in behind the Detroit defense from the halfboards and skated in alone on Hasek, where he deked to his backhand but was stonewalled by the outstretched left pad of Hasek as it flashed to the post.

Hasek finished with 20 saves on 22 shots while Leclaire finished with 36 saves on 39 Detroit shots.

The game marked the NHL debut for former Michigan State forward Justin Abdelkader, who was signed to an amateur tryout contract earlier in the day. Abdelkader, who is very close on signing a three-year entry-level contract with the club, finished with 11:20 of ice time, two penalty minutes, three shots and a -1 +/- rating while centering a line of Derek Meech and Aaron Downey.

The Red Wings didn't come out of the game healthy, however: the team lost forward Tomas Kopecky in the third period to an apparent knee injury. He did not return to the game.


LGW.com's 3 Stars

1. Henrik Zetterberg (DET) - GW-Goal (43)
2. Pascal Leclaire (CBJ) - 36 Saves
3. Dominik Hasek (DET) - 20 Saves

Red Wings Lines

Filppula - Datsyuk - Cleary
Hudler - Zetterberg - Franzen
Kopecky - Hartigan - Drake
Downey - Abdelkader - Meech

Lidstrom - Rafalski
Lilja - Kronwall
Lebda - Chelios

Hasek (Osgood)

 


NHL.com Stats Pack

· Game Summary
· Box Score
· Play-by-Play
· Event Summary
· Team Rosters
· Time on Ice: CBJ, DET

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