|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Wednesday, Dec. 15 7:30pm ET
Brown's two goals too much for Oilers | |||||
|
| ||||||
|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
DETROIT (AP) -- Sergei Fedorov could tell in the morning that Doug Brown was in for a good night Wednesday. Brown, seeing his first action since Nov. 28, scored two goals and the Detroit Red Wings won their fourth straight with a 5-1 win over Edmonton, snapping the Oilers' modest two-game streak. "He had a great morning skate, so it only made sense that he'd have a big game," said Fedorov, whose passes set up both of Brown's goals. "It was great to have Doug back in the lineup. It's exciting to have him back on the line." Brown, who missed 17 of 19 games with a foot injury, said the goals helped him overlook some fatigue. "It's nice to contribute to a win," Brown said. The Red Wings jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead, and about the only real drama in this game was whether Detroit goaltender Ken Wregget would earn his first shutout in more than a year. Wregget, making his first start since a 4-1 loss Dec. 4 at Nashville, took a 5-0 lead into the third period and came up with some good stops before Bill Guerin scored his sixth goal with 6:25 remaining. Wregget made 27 saves. "It can be easy playing with a big lead, as long as you keep your head about you and don't let your mind drift," Wregget said. "That's happened to me a couple of times this year." The Red Wings are 14-3-1 at home, while Edmonton dropped to 3-12-3 on the road. The weary Oilers were playing the sixth and final game of an 11-day trip. "I don't like to use fatigue as an excuse," Edmonton coach Kevin Lowe said. "It was an unforced error that led to the first goal. That got them on a roll. "There was a sag on our part after that first goal. Then, maybe, the guys got to thinking about the fatigue factor." Because of problems with the Oilers' charter leaving New York following a 4-2 over the Islanders on Tuesday night, the team didn't arrive in Detroit until 1:30 p.m. -- six hours before the game. Brendan Shanahan, Pat Verbeek and Stacy Roest scored Detroit's first-period goals. Shanahan's 16th goal of the season came at 8:02 on Detroit's fourth shot of the game. Larry Murphy fed a quick pass from between the circles and Shanahan tipped it inside the left post before goaltender Bill Ranford could recover. "It's been a long trip," Ranford said. "I think we're all disappointed with the way it finished. Six games in 10 nights kind of showed tonight. The bottom line is, we didn't play well tonight. But we don't want to make excuses." Ranford, who played for Detroit the final three months of last season, got a piece of Nicklas Lidstrom's shot from between the circles. But the rebound went to Shanahan, in front, who tipped it to Verbeek charging in from the right side for his fourth goal with 5:33 left in the period. Darryl Laplante -- at times without a stick, at times flat on his belly -- did a good job of digging the puck out from behind the net to set up Roest's fourth goal with 1:55 left in the first. Brown made it 4-0 with his fifth goal of the season, taking a cross-ice pass from Fedorov and beating Ranford from the right circle with 7:39 left in the second period. Brown took another feed from Fedorov and shot the puck between Ranford's legs for a 5-0 lead with 25 seconds left in the second. "When you don't have your A-game against that team, they'll beat you," Ranford said. "I saw last year that when that team goes into its defensive mode, it's hard to get through them." Ranford, who backs up Tommy Salo for Edmonton, faced 30 shots as his record slipped to 1-4-3. He came into this game with a 2.92 goals-against average. The Oilers were playing without Doug Weight. The Oilers' captain and second-leading scorer, left midway through the second period of Tuesday night's game against the Islanders with cracked ribs following a cross-check from Gino Odjick. Weight, who has four goals and 21 assists, is out indefinitely. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Edmonton Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse RECAPS NY Rangers 8 Los Angeles 3
Detroit 5
  | |||||