Wings stifle Avalanche

Kronwall nets game-winner

3/6/2013

DETROIT — Niklas Kronwall scored in the second period thanks to a fluky bounce, and the Detroit Red Wings held on to beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Detroit opened the scoring with 13 minutes to go in the second on a breakaway goal by Johan Franzen, and Kronwall added to the lead with 2:28 left when his shot from the point went wide, bounced back off the boards, and went in off the right skate of goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Colorado’s Paul Stastny spoiled Jimmy Howard’s bid for a shutout when he scored with 1:30 to play in the third.

The Avalanche nearly had a fortunate bounce of their own in the final seconds when a shot went wide and caromed off the boards out to Matt Duchene in front of the net. But Duchene couldn’t beat Howard.

After the final buzzer, a frustrated Duchene broke his stick into three pieces when he slammed it against the empty net Colorado had been defending, then threw the rest of the stick down on the ice.

BLUE JACKETS 4, OILERS 3: Sergei Bobrovsky, replacing an ineffective Steve Mason, made two spectacular short-handed saves in overtime and stopped both shots he faced in the shootout to lift the Columbus over Edmonton at home.

Vinny Prospal had a goal and an assist, and Derek MacKenzie and Jack Johnson also scored in regulation. Artem Anisimov and Mark Letestu scored in the shootout for Columbus, which extended its points streak to four games.

Jeff Petry, Ryan Whitney, and Magnus Paajarvi tallied for Edmonton.