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BOX SCORE
DETROIT (AP) -- Chris Osgood should be very thankful the Detroit
Red Wings overcame his mistakes and gave him a victory.
Osgood's two misplays led to short-handed goals for the
Nashville Predators, but Brendan Shanahan scored his second goal at
4:10 of overtime to give the Red Wings a 3-2 win. Detroit extended
its winning streak to a season-best eight games (6-0-2).
|  | | Detroit's Brendan Shanahan celebrates after beating Nashville goalie Tomas Vokoun in overtime for the game-winner. |
Sergei Fedorov also scored for the Red Wings, who moved within
two points of idle St. Louis for first place in the Central
Division and the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
Detroit also got three assists from Nicklas Lidstrom and two from
Tomas Holmstrom.
The win seemed unlikely after the Predators forced overtime
behind the solid play of goalie Tomas Vokoun and goals by Tom
Fitzgerald and Robert Valicevic.
"It happens once, you try to shake it off," Shanahan said.
"But when it happens twice, we were in shock."
Fitzgerald scored 14:34 into the second period when he beat
Osgood to a loose puck near the right circle and flipped it over
the goalie and into the net.
"I didn't think I had a chance," Fitzgerald said. "He was
probably hesitant and (thinking) `go, stop, go.' It was just a
battle for the puck."
Valicevic tied it 4:12 into the third after Osgood again came
out of the net to make a pass to Vyacheslav Kozlov near the Detroit
blue line. Valicevic tipped the puck away from Kozlov, and it
skidded into the goal before Osgood could recover.
"I don't think I can explain it, but I don't think I've seen
it, either," said Lidstrom, who has assisted on nine of Detroit's
last 13 goals. "We got too passive in the second and third
periods. That's why they scored those fluky goals on us."
Shanahan ended it when he parked himself to Vokoun's right in
time to take a Lidstrom rebound off the end boards and fire it into
the net for his third career overtime goal.
"We let in a couple of bad goals and we didn't play solid on
those plays," Fedorov said. "But we got back to how we were
playing most of the game and the result is overtime goal."
Vokoun had 32 saves, including several spectacular stops late in
the game. He denied point-blank chances from Fedorov and Shanahan
in the final minute of the third period and made a pad save on
Kozlov in overtime.
"I don't know how many times I lose 2-1, 1-0, tonight 3-2 in
overtime," said Vokoun (8-19-1). "You're going to give up goals,
but to be honest with you we just don't score and that's something
you can't control. I don't know what I can do about it."
Nashville earned a point for the regulation tie after losing its
previous five visits to Detroit the past two years.
"Tomas played great and we worked hard," Predators center Greg
Johnson said. "This was a big challenge. We play these guys three
times in two weeks."
Osgood made 24 saves for Detroit, which has allowed only 10
goals in its last six games.
Fedorov scored 11:53 into the first with a shot through traffic
from between the circles that beat Vokoun on his glove side.
Holmstrom made the play with a pass out from behind the Nashville
net before setting a screen in front of Vokoun as Lidstrom fed
Fedorov for the shot.
Another good play from Holmstrom set up Shanahan's power-play
goal that gave Detroit a 2-0 lead 12:57 into the second. Holmstrom
got the rebound of Lidstrom's shot from the right point and quickly
passed it to Shanahan, who was open on the left side of the net and
put a blast past Vokoun.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Nashville Clubhouse
Detroit Clubhouse
RECAPS
Detroit 3
Nashville 2
Tampa Bay 4
Montreal 3
Colorado 4
Anaheim 2
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Brendan Shanahan scores the game-winning goal in OT.
avi: 721 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Robert Valicevic scores the second short-handed goal for the Predators.
avi: 366 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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