Brandon Yip scored in the sixth round of the shootout, pushing the Colorado Avalanche past the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4.
Yip beat Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard with a wrist shot into the top shelf after the previous 11 skaters failed to score for either team. Johan Franzen and Mike Modano both hit the crossbar in the skills session on back-to-back attempts for the Red Wings.
The Red Wings led three times in the game, including holding a 3-1 advantage late in the second, but were unable to attain their third straight victory. Despite leading for a majority of the game, Detroit was badly outplayed at times and was out-shot 38-28 for the game.
Pavel Datsyuk recorded his 200th career goal in the second period, redirecting a pass from Henrik Zetterberg past Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj that gave the Wings a 2-1 lead. Datsyuk became the 15th Red Wing to notch 200 goals for the franchise.
Detroit led the game 4-3 on a shorthanded tally by Patrick Eaves midway through the third period, but were unable to hold on. David Jones completed a three-point night, sliding a shot between Howard’s pads to tie the game at four.
Johan Franzen got the Wings on the board first, just 2:34 into the opening frame. The Red Wings, in a preview of things to come, could not hold the lead and gave up a late goal to Jones in the waning minutes of the period.
After Datsyuk tallied his goal, Franzen gave the Wings a two-goal cushion late in the second period. Franzen took a feed from Valtteri Filppula and snapped a shot past Budaj to push the lead to 3-1.
The Avalanche, however, came right back at the end of the period yet again. Ryan O’Reilly beat a screened Howard with a shot from the blue line to cut the lead to one with just 49 seconds to play. Then 4:43 into the third, Daniel Winnik tied the game at three, throwing a shot off Howard’s shoulder and into the net.