Red Wings Rally Past Oilers 4-3

Norm Maracle didn't have a chance to get nervous about his first NHL start. After all, he found out about it just 20 minutes before it happened.

Maracle made 28 saves and Steve Yzerman had a goal and two assists as the Detroit Red Wings rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits and beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 Tuesday night.

Maracle, 23, was called up last week to replace injured backup goalie Kevin Hodson. He was pressed into duty Tuesday when Chris Osgood pulled a groin during the pregame skate.

"I think it's better that way," Maracle said of the short notice. "I wasn't thinking about it all day.'

Maracle didn't get much help from his teammates early on. Edmonton scored three power-play goals and took a 3-1 lead into the third period.

But Doug Brown and Yzerman scored power-play goals early in the third, then Darren McCarty got the game-winner at 8:36.

The win was the first all season for the Red Wings in a game they trailed by two goals.

"I think we had a good start in the third," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "We seemed to pressure them and force them into penalties."

Yzerman's goal was the 557th of his career, moving him ahead of Johnny Bucyk for 13th place on the NHL list.

Mike Knuble also scored for the Red Wings.

Bill Guerin, Ryan Smyth and Boris Mironov scored for Edmonton, which missed a great chance to gain ground in its fight for a Western Conference playoff berth.

"We don't make excuses," Guerin said, "but you can't have games like that where you waste points. We might've taken it for granted when things were going well, because we stopped playing hard."

Former Red Wings Bob Essensa, who won his previous two starts against Detroit this season, stopped 42 shots. The Red Wings outshot the Oilers 34-14 over the final two periods.

"We were pretty happy with things, and then they came on strong," Essensa said. "When they get the momentum they're tough to stop."

The win was just the Red Wings' second in their last six games, and once again their penalty-killing unit was weak. Detroit has alllowed 10 power-play goals in its last four games.

"We're putting them on the power play so early," Bowman said. "That's tough on a goalie, but I think he did fine. It didn't look good, but he did his best."

Goals by Guerin and Smyth gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead after one period.

The first came with the Oilers skating 5-on-3 after referee Don Koharski called five penalties, three on Detroit, in a 1:40 span. Guerin, standing in front of the crease, deflected Dean McAmmond's point blast past Maracle.

Exactly five minutes later, Smyth took advantage of a holding call against Viacheslav Fetisov. Smyth got open left of the net and lifted a shot over Maracle's glove.

"They already had two goal and a couple of more power plays and I said, `Oh no, I don't want to give up four or five right away,'" Maracle said.

A great play by Yzerman got Detroit on the board 56 seconds into the second period. Yzerman was tripped on a break in front of the net, but managed to loft a backward pass to Knuble, who easily shot it past Essensa.

But Mironov restored the Oilers' two-goal lead. McAmmond won a faceoff to Mironov at the top of the left circle, and Mironov's blast beat Maracle on the short side at 13:24.

Power-play goals by Brown and Yzerman gave Detroit a 3-3 tie in the third.

Brown's drive from the top of the right circle beat Essensa wide at 2:17. Yzerman got the equalizer at 7:13 when, seemingly tied up in front of the goal, he deflected Brown's shot past Essensa.

"We had the puck at the blue line two times and didn't get it out, and both times they got in the net," Oilers coach Ron Low said.