Fedorov Lifts Wings In OT

The Detroit Red Wings found it easy to get shots on goal. The hard part was getting the puck into the net.

After outshooting the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 23-1 in the first period Friday night and holding a 35-7 advantage at another point in the game, Detroit found itself up only 1-0 with less than three minutes left in regulation time.

Brendan Shanahan's power-play goal, his 12th of the season, at 18:54 of the first period had been the only marker.

"One-goal leads are precarious, we knew that," said Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman. "If we'd have scored a second goal, maybe they'd have had to open it up a bit."

But the Ducks' opening came soon after when Petr Tenkrat took a pass from Oleg Tverdovsky between the Wings' Kirk Maltby and Jiri Fischer at the Detroit blue line, went in alone on Detroit goaltender Manny Legace and tied the score 1-1 with just 2:32 left in the game.

Detroit then faced the prospects of tying or losing a game in which it had totally dominated.

Sergei Fedorov took care of that.

Just 19 seconds into the overtime period, Fedorov's slap shot from the top of the right circle eluded Anaheim goaltender Guy Hbert and gave the Red Wings a 2-1 victory.

Detroit's record is now 20-12-3-2, while Anaheim falls to 13-16-4-4.

"We carried the puck into the zone and started cycling into the corner," said Fedorov. "Kozzy (Slava Kozlov) tried to find Nick (Lidstrom) in the middle. That's why I had to go all the way to the blue line. When he (Kozlov) realized he couldn't (get the puck to Lidstrom), he just slid the puck down.

"I realized they were giving me the shot." Fedorov said. "I shot it high because, for a split second, I thought the goalie was blocked a little bit and he has a tendency to go down. That's how it went in. I got a shot and I took it."

Before Federov's winner, Hebert had stopped 42 Red Wing shots and kept the Ducks in the game, particularly in the first period.

"Guy Hebert was strong for us and allowed it to be a one-goal deficit," said Anaheim coach Guy Charron. "As the game went on, we did a few things better and allowed ourselves to get a point."

The 23 shots in the first period by the Red Wings were the most they've had in a period this season. It was also the most the Ducks have allowed this season.

"I said (after the first period), 'If we keep this up, they'll have 69 shots,'" said Charron. "We better do something about it or we'll make the record book. They had shots. I think Guy had to come up with big saves in key areas."

Hebert was both happy and frustrated.

"It was great to get a point," he said. " ... But I wasn't happy. Especially that quick in overtime. We didn't really give ourselves a chance to win."

Anaheim only had 17 shots on goal in the game.

"They only had three chances after two periods," said Bowman. "They probably had only five or six."

The Red Wings appeared to make it 2-0 with 13:30 left in the second period when Steve Yzerman's shot appeared to bounce over the goal line. But referee Brian Murphy ruled no goal. When play was stopped 14 seconds later, the play was reviewed but the replays weren't conclusive enough to overturn the original ruling.

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