NEW YORK, New York -- Dan Cleary scored with just 2:03 remaining in the third period on Sunday night, carrying the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers.
Cleary sent a shot from along the goal line at New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. With the puck between his pads, Lundqvist spun, inadvertantly knocking it into his own net.
Kris Draper added an empty net goal with the Red Wings on a power play to close out the game.
Despite outshooting the Rangers, Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard had to keep the Wings in the game at several points.
Howard stopped New York's Ryan Callahan on a penalty shot in the second period while the Rangers still had a 1-0 lead. With the game tied in the third Howard made a series of important stops as Detroit killed off three consecutive penalties.
Brian Boyle opened the game's scoring with 4:04 remaining in the first period. Boyle tipped a pass from Christopher Higgins past Howard while Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson miscommunicated on the backcheck.
Pavel Datsyuk tied the game back up with 8:01 left in the second, putting home the rebound of a Henrik Zetterberg chance just four seconds after the end of a Detroit power play.
The Red Wings finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play. The Rangers went scoreless on four tries.
Howard made 28 saves on 29 shots against while Lundqvist stopped 28 of 30 Detroit chances.
Notes: Brian Rafalski returned to the Wings lineup after missing two games with a back injury, bumping Jakub Kindl back out of the lineup. Ville Leino was the healthy scratch up front with Brad May working back in.
It's a rare Original Six showdown tonight as the Wings visit Madison Square Garden and the New York Rangers.
I haven't been in front of a TV in hours and there's insanely little pregame coverage of tonight's matchup on teh intarwebs so I'm going to make a couple guesses: Rafalski still out, Howard starts in net, May back in the lineup. Okay, I know that last one's true 'cause it was mentioned yesterday but I don't know who he's replacing.
The Rangers recently waived their backup so Henrik Lundqvist gets his second start in as many nights, coming off a win in Buffalo last night.
MSG hosted a basketball game this afternoon so expect the ice to be about as bad as Dallas in May of 1998. Sweet.
Looks like Raffy is in. And I didn't know Howard wore #35 in honor of Richter, he wore #33 in college and with GR.
Leino out for May. Odd.
Five on two and the Rangers go offsides. Wow.
Glorious chance and no one can poke it home. Gah!
Bertuzzi with Cleary and Abdelkader. Weird PP unit.
There's that great defensive coverage again. Rookie mistake by Abs?
Abdelkader just stopped skating there. f*ck.
He expected Ericsson to come over. Bad communication, wrong play. And of course they score on it.
Aww f*ck, we'll see what happens here.
Way to go Jimmy!
Ericsson owes Howard a very large drink. Thank god for that.
Not a PPG but I'll sure as hell take take it.
Good to see Datsyuk get a goal!
Man, that was a sh*t powerplay, but that's irrelevant now.
Ken and Mickey are tempting fate, talking about Gaborik like that. Ranger fans are saying he's about to explode 'cause he's been too quiet tonight.
Shanny doesn't have to show up to work until 8:30? Nice.
Damn, Stuie. What a hit.
Holy f*ck, did an intent to blow just go in Detroit's favor?
Puck was never in, good call.
I agree with your reaction! Haha.
Cleary with the bad angle shot, 2-1!
I really hope this game doesn't go into overtime. It seems like all the games are going into overtime lately.
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Someone just scored! I feel like Nostradamus 
Girardi stopped skating on the icing, that was bullsh*t. ENG is karmic.
Dan Cleary
Credit: Clark Rasmussen
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