EDMONTON, ALBERTA (AP) - Valtteri Filppula scored with 1:26 left and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Tuesday night to move back into first place overall in the NHL.
Jonathan Ericsson and Marian Hossa also scored for the Red Wings (49-16-9), who won for the fifth time in six games and moved a point ahead of idle San Jose for top spot in the Western Conference.
Denis Grebeshkov and Ales Kotalik scored for the Oilers (35-29-9), who lost their second in a row but remained in seventh in the tight Western race, one point ahead of Nashville and Anaheim.
Detroit scored three times in the third period. Ericsson’s first goal of the season tied it at 1 with 8:45 left and Hossa scored with 1:58 remaining. Filppula’s tally made it 3-1.
Kotalik scored with 1 minute to play, but the Red Wings were able to hang on.
Edmonton opened the scoring on a power play with 1:11 to go in the first, shortly after a two-man advantage had expired. Ales Hemsky sent a pass back to Grebeshkov at the point, and his knuckler got past Ty Conklin.
Detroit controlled the bulk of the play in the second, outshooting Edmonton 17-4, but Dwayne Roloson kept the Oilers in front. His biggest save was a point blank grab on Johan Franzen with 5 minutes to play and the Red Wings on a power play.
Roloson finished with 41 stops.
Detroit had another big opportunity to draw even midway through the third when Filppula had a wide open net, but the Oilers were able to get a stick in the way and deflect the puck.
Notes@: It was the fourth and final meeting of the season between the two clubs. The Red Wings owned the first three games, outscoring Edmonton by a combined total of 16-6. … Detroit’s Andreas Lilja’s recovery from a concussion suffered in late February is going slowly and he has yet to start riding a bike to work on his conditioning. However the Red Wings did get a player back from the injured list as forward Tomas Holmstrom returned from a knee injury.
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