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Draper leads Red Wings past Avs

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Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Kris Draper scored the eventual game-winner late in the second and Ty Conklin bounced back from a shellacking his last time out with 25 saves as the Detroit Red Wings got by Colorado, 3-2, at the Pepsi Center.

Detroit took over first place in the race for the Presidents Trophy with 94 points, sliding by both idle San Jose and Boston at 93 points apiece.

Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula got the other goals for Detroit, which suffered an 8-0 loss to Nashville Saturday for its worst shutout loss since an 8-0 defeat on October 9, 1982 at home against the Winnipeg Jets. Conklin started in net for the loss and allowed four goals on nine shots.

The Red Wings have since bounced back with two wins in a row coming off Tuesday's blanking of St. Louis with Chris Osgood manning the crease.

Detroit was without star forward Marian Hossa, who leads the club with 34 goals this year. Hossa returned from a two-game absence due to a neck injury last night versus the Blues but suffered a head/neck injury in a violent collision with the end boards after being checked by St. Louis' Roman Polak.

Hossa remained down for several minutes before being taken off the ice on a stretcher. A CT scan was negative.

Milan Hejduk notched a goal and assist for Colorado, which is mired in its worst stretch of a now forgettable season, dropping its sixth consecutive game. John-Michael Liles also scored for the Avalanche, who got 27 saves from Andrew Raycroft.

The Avs last lost six straight from March 30-April 11, 1998 and failed in their attempt to sweep the Red Wings in a season series for the first time since relocating to Denver in 1995-96.

Liles fired through a host of bodies from the high slot 3:10 into the contest but the Red Wings tied it up with just 19 seconds left in the frame.

A Nicklas Lidstrom shot from the slot got hung up in traffic and Filppula gathered the disc, wheeled in the low left circle and scored over a prone Raycroft.

Detroit took a 2-1 lead 7:03 into the second on an Avs giveaway in their own zone as Franzen came off the right boards on a dump-in and snapped off a shot from the low circle. He grabbed his own rebound and skated across the goal- mouth unabated and fired back into an empty net.

Derek Meech flicked a pass in front from the right corner to Draper for a bang-bang play in front that made it a 3-1 game with 6:27 to play in the second.

Hejduk took a feed from Ryan Smyth behind the net and stuffed it under the pads of Conklin with 1:41 left to play but couldn't get another to light the lamp.

Game Notes

The Avalanche, who were swept in four regular-season games by the Wings last year, have still lost eight of their last 10 at home versus Detroit...The Avs moved to 17-15-0 at the Pepsi Center this year while the Red Wings improved to 19-10-5 on the road.

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