Red Wings 2, Avalanche 1
DETROIT -- Jimmy Howard made 34 saves and the Detroit Red Wings held off the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena.
Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall scored for Detroit (11-8-4).
Paul Stastny scored a goal and Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 31 shots for Colorado (8-9-4).
Howard shut out the Avalanche until Stastny backhanded in his own rebound from the bottom of the right circle with 1:30 left for his sixth goal of the season.
Howard made an outstanding pad save on Gabriel Landeskog's rebound chance from the slot area 50 seconds into the third period and then an even better stop on John Mitchell, who was left alone in front of the net, a little over two minutes into the third. Mitchell had enough time to make a move and take a backhand shot that Howard knocked away with his glove as he dived to his left.
Howard then thwarted P.A. Parenteau on a breakaway about 8:30 into the third period.
Franzen got the first goal of the game seven minutes into the second period. He scored on a breakaway after taking a pass from Damien Brunner by beating Giguere high on the glove side with a snap shot. It was Franzen's fourth goal of the season and broke his six-game scoring drought.
Kronwall made it 2-0 with 2:28 left in the second period when his slap shot from the point went wide, bounced off the back boards and deflected in off Gigure's leg. It was Kronwall's third goal.
Howard made a point-blank save on Cody McLeod just over five minutes into the second period.
Giguere made a shoulder save on Henrik Zetterberg's backhand shot as Zetterberg cut across the top of the crease off the left wing in the last minute of the first period.
NOTES: Injured Colorado defensemen Erik Johnson and Ryan Wilson could return for Wednesday night's game in Chicago. Johnson has missed 10 games with a concussion and Wilson 13 games with an ankle injury. ... Avalanche right winger Milan Hejduk didn't play because of an upper-body injury. ... The Red Wings remained without forwards Valtteri Filppula (shoulder), Todd Bertuzzi (back), Darren Helm (back) and Mikael Samuelsson (broken finger) and defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo (shoulder). ... Colorado defenseman Matt Hunwick is from the Detroit suburb of Warren and played at the University of Michigan. Avalanche right winger Aaron Palushaj is from the Detroit suburb of Livonia and also played at Michigan.
