Lee Stempniak's power-play goal with 5:58 remaining in the third period proved to be the difference as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Red Wings 3-2 Thursday night.

The defeat ended a string of 12-straight games in which the Red Wings had secured at least a point. The game also marked Detroit's sixth loss to Central Division opponents this season -- the only other regulation loss was to Pacific-division foe Anaheim. One other loss can be attributed to the Blues and the other four to the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Red Wings trailed 1-0 in the game until the halfway point of the game when they scored two goals in a span of just 30 seconds. Valtteri Filppula tied the game when he deflected a centering feed from Dallas Drake at 10:35. At 11:05 Mikael Samuelsson came in on a partial breakaway, fought off a defender and was able to slide the puck between the legs of netminder Manny Legace for a 2-1 Detroit lead.

Detroit outshot St. Louis 12-5 in the third period but the Blues scored on two of those shots: the first to tie the game 2-2 at the 4:22 mark as Keith Tkachuk deflected a shot from Paul Kariya. Stempniak gave the Blues the lead for good at 14:02.

The Wings outshot the Blues 36-24 but lost the special teams battle as St. Louis finished 2-for-4 on the power play while holding Detroit to 0-for-5.

Detroit also lost forward Tomas Holmstrom early as he re-injured the same knee that had kept him out of the lineup earlier this month for a pair of games.