Red Wings end shootout drought with 5-4 win over Leafs

By Michael Caples –

The Red Wings finally won a shootout.

Goals from Daniel Alfredsson and Pavel Datsyuk in the decisive round of penalty shots gave Detroit a 5-4 win over Toronto Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre – their first shootout win in 12 tries.

Datsyuk, Joakim Andersson, Tomas Jurco and Tomas Tatar scored for the Wings in regulation, while Jonas Gustavsson stopped 19 of 23 shots to beat his former team.

Clay Township native Danny DeKeyser returned to the Red Wings’ line-up after healing a separated shoulder. The former Western Michigan Broncos standout recorded one assist, an even plus-minus and two shots on 17:42 worth of ice-time.

Cody Franson, Dion Phaneuf, Joffrey Lupul and David Clarkson scored for the Leafs.

The Wings were two-for-two in the shootout to end it after only two skaters apiece, with Gustavsson stopping James van Riemsdyk and Mason Raymond.

While Franson scored the game’s first goal, the Red Wings seized control of the game early.

Datsyuk, Andersson and Jurco all scored in the first period, giving the Wings a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.

Yet the Maple Leafs pulled even, thanks to second-period goals by Phaneuf and Lupul.

Clarkson gave the Leafs their second lead of the night at the 8:32 mark of the third period, somehow getting a stick on a rebound to force it past Gustavsson.

Tatar forced overtime when he circled the net and buried a rebound off a point shot from Jurco.

Alfredsson scored with a wrist shot to the top corner in the shootout, while Datsyuk deked to his backhand and sent the puck just under the crossbar.