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Sunday, Feb. 13 8:00pm ET
Shanahan scores game-winning goal

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DENVER (AP) -- A seemingly innocuous play lifted the Detroit Red Wings to a 4-3 win over their bitter rivals, the Colorado Avalanche, on Sunday night.

Brendan Shanahan scored his eighth game-winning goal of the season, capping a rally from a three-goal deficit.

Chris Osgood
Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood, left, deflects a shot by Dave Reid as his teammate, Nicklas Lidstrom, comes in to cover him.

Shanahan had the decisive goal, his 29th, at 16:07 of the final period. After Sergei Fedorov got the puck airborne on an attempt to dump it into the Colorado zone, Shanahan chased after it and beat defenseman Martin Skoula and goalie Patrick Roy.

"I saw five players waiting for me, and I didn't have enough gas to beat all those guys and bring the puck to the offensive zone," Fedorov said. "I made a safe flip to make sure there was no offsides, no icing. It worked out pretty good for us. It was a fortunate goal."

Asked if he knew he had Shanahan out in front, Fedorov said, "I knew we had one forward high. It's in our system."

Shanahan called the game-winner "a lucky play. The puck was really up high in the air. Those are tough plays for a defenseman. They've got to look up and play the puck, yet they know people are bearing down on them.

"It's a little flip play. It's like the new play in hockey. Every team does that. It could have bounced one way or the other, and it bounced to me. I just whacked it."

Skoula took the blame for the goal. "I blew it," he said. "I tried to hit the puck out of the air with my stick, and I missed it."

After falling behind 3-0 midway through the second period, Detroit got second-period goals from Fedorov and Darren McCarty. Pat Verbeek tied it at 12:11 of the third period.

Detroit's Chris Osgood had 22 saves, and Roy finished with 32.

It marked the first time this season that Detroit had won after trailing after two periods; the Red Wings had been 0-12-1 in such situations. It was Detroit's third straight come-from-behind victory over Colorado this season, however.

"We haven't come back much this year," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "I think getting a goal quick after they went up 3-0 gave us a big lift."

Colorado was playing without its best offensive player, Peter Forsberg (concussion), and its best defender, Adam Foote (groin).

"Detroit came back and executed a perfect play on the tying goal," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "On the winning goal, the puck goes in front of Skoula and instead of going toward the net, it ends up on Shanahan's stick. There's not much we can do about that goal."

Avalanche defenseman Aaron Miller said his team "didn't answer them when it went to 3-2. We waited for them to attack us."

In a chippy game between the playoff contenders, Chris Drury and Joe Sakic scored first-period goals to put Colorado ahead 2-0.

Colorado didn't get its first shot on goal until more than seven minutes into the game and was outshot 10-2 before Drury scored on a power play at 11:20.

Drury scored his 17th goal on a shot from the point that ricocheted off Osgood's left ribs.

On the ensuing faceoff, Detroit's Martin Lapointe slugged Colorado's Jeff Odgers, then dropped his gloves and stick and drew a two-minute penalty for roughing, but the Avalanche couldn't convert. Moments after returning to the ice, Lapointe leveled Odgers with a blindside hit along the boards.

Sakic made it 2-0 at 16:23, punching in a rebound.

In a 4-on-4 situation midway through the second period, Colorado rookie Alex Tanguay made it 3-0 at 9:35, pushing the puck past defenseman Steve Duchesne after Chris Chelios failed to clear it from the left boards.

Just 17 seconds later, Fedorov countered, scoring on a backhander from the slot on a pass from Duchesne at 9:52. Then, at 12:15, McCarty, returning to the ice after missing 39 games following hernia surgery, tipped in Duchesne's shot.

Roy later made a pad save on a breakaway by Fedorov.

Verbeek tied it from in front of the goal after taking a pass from Nicklas Lidstrom.

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