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The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
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Reuters
DETROIT - A quick early scoring burst by the Red Wings was too much for the Calgary Flames to handle.
Detroit scored three first-period goals, chasing Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, and beat Calgary 7-4 on Sunday. Henrik Zetterberg had two goals and two assists, while Joey MacDonald got his first career win in goal as the Red Wings outshot the Flames 50-20.
Detroit, which won its 12th straight at home, also got a goal and an assist each from Tomas Holmstrom, Mathieu Schneider, and Jason Williams, and Pavel Datsyuk, and Johan Franzen also added a goal each. Nicklas Lidstrom and Dan Cleary each had two assists.
“The biggest thing was for us to have a good start, and we had one today,” said Zetterberg.
The Red Wings outshot the Flames 17-5 in the opening period. They’ve had a recent trend of falling behind in the first period.
But Zetterberg opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the high slot after Kiprusoff misplayed the puck behind the net. Datsyuk put in the rebound of Holmstrom’s shot for his 17th goal, and Schneider beat Kiprusoff with a slap shot from the point 1:10 later.
Kiprusoff was then pulled, having stopped 11 of 14 shots before being replaced by Jamie McLennan.
“It’s frustrating. They came out quick,” said Calgary’s Craig Conroy. “I’ve got to take a lot of the blame myself. We weren’t ready, we made a few mistakes and the next thing you know they’re in the net and all over us.”
The barrage continued in the second period. Zetterberg got his second goal of the night and 26th of the season, on the power play, before Calgary got going.
Roman Hamrlik had a goal and an assist for Calgary, and Alex Tanguay, Jeff Friesen, and Mark Giordano also scored.
Tanguay capitalized on a turnover in front of the Detroit net by Franzen and beat MacDonald just 42 seconds after Zetterberg’s second. It was Tanguay’s 16th goal.
But Williams and Holmstrom both scored in the middle period.
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Friesen connected with 6:20 left in the third period, Hamrlik with 3:47 remaining, and Giordano with 2:40 left.
“It would have been nice to have it 6-1, but they’re a good team,” said MacDonald.
Franzen’s goal came with 1:23 remaining for Detroit.
“They outplayed us for the full 60 minutes,” said McLennan. “We didn’t do what we set out to do and they did.”
Notes: D Brad Stuart and C Wayne Primeau were in the lineup for Calgary after being acquired from the Boston Bruins for Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew. ... Detroit G Dominik Hasek missed the game because of tendinitis in his wrist. ... Red Wings D Danny Markov missed his second game due to an upper body injury.
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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The Red Wings have finally started to embrace a record they've been chasing.
