Red Wings top AVS to take over western conference Lead

Goaltender Ty Conklin recovered from a horrible performance in his last start and with his team playing solid defense in front of him the Detroit Red Wings eked out a 3-2 road victory at Colorado to take over sole possession of first place in the Western Conference.  The Wings now lead the San Jose Sharks by a single point and also own the best record in the entire NHL by a single point over both San Jose and the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins.

Conklin allowed two goals on 27 shots and said after the game that his last outing against Nashville last week—where he allowed 4 goals in only ten minutes of play before being yanked—never undermined his confidence:

"My confidence wasn't affected, I've felt good about my game pretty much all year. You have those kind of nights."

Colorado got on the scoreboard first when John-Michael Liles scored just 3:48 into the opening period.  Liles was assisted on his goal by Milan Hejduk and Scott Hannan and gave the Avalanche the lead for most of the first period.  Detroit would tie the score just 19 seconds before the break when Valtteri Filppula tallied on a goal set up by Tomas Kopecky and Nicklas Lidstrom.

The second period was all Detroit as Johan Franzen gave the Red Wings a lead they’d never relinquish when he beat Andrew Raycroft at the 7:03 mark for his 26^th of the season assisted by Brett Lebda.  Kris Draper would add an insurance goal at the 13:33 mark set up by Derek Meech and Aaron Downey.  Colorado would pull within one with just over two minutes left in the game on Milan Hejduk’s goal assisted by Ryan Smyth and Paul Stastny but was unable to beat Conklin for the equalizer.

The Wings players were clearly pleased with the fact that they now owned the best record in the NHL.  Johan Franzen insisted that they don’t live and die by their position in the standings, but they are aware of the rankings:

"You want to try to stay up there. I think we are starting to play better and better."

The Red Wings will return home for their next three contests, beginning with a tough matchup against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.  They’ll then host Phoenix on Tuesday and Calgary on Thursday.  Colorado is at risk to post the worst record since the franchise relocated to Denver from Quebec City.  They’ll travel to ‘The Windy City’ for a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday before returning home for games against the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday and Minnesota Wild on Thursday.