A packed house — helped along by thousands of Detroit Red Wings jerseys in the seats — saw the resumption of the NHL schedule Monday night at the Pepsi Center. When it was over, the Red Wings showed why anybody who thinks their best days are over could be proven mighty foolish.
Detroit beat the Avalanche 3-2, moving to within six points of Colorado in the Western Conference standings. Nick Lidstrom’s third-period, power-play goal snapped a 2-2 tie.
The Red Wings played a tremendous first period, gaining a 2-0 lead. Perpetual Avs nemesis Tomas Holmstrom scored an easy goal at 6:06, converting Pavel Datsyuk’s crossing pass by the left side of the side. And at the 12:40 mark, Johan Franzen scored, all to thundering cheers from the many Red Wings fans in the crowd.
It was a bad start to the second period by the Avs too, with Matt Hendricks and John-Michael Liles taking penalties within the first six minutes. But starting with two good kills, the Avs started to get some momentum, and by the end of the period it was a tie game.
T.J. Galiardi cut the deficit in half with his 10th goal, jamming home a loose puck in the crease of Wings goalie Jimmy Howard. Not quite three minutes later, Chris Stewart tied it with his 20th goal, blasting a slap shot through the pads of Howard from the short side.
But the game was decided when the Red Wings cashed in on Kyle Quincey’s tripping penalty with 10:01 left in the third. Quincey tripped Valtteri Filppula, and 56 seconds later, future Hall of Famer Lidstrom scored to make it 3-2.
The Avs were caught standing around watching Detroit pass the puck around, and Lidstrom somehow was able to get deep between the circles for a shot that beat Craig Anderson.
