Holmstrom, Red Wings put out Flames

DETROIT There aren't too many slow 38-year-olds inthe National Hockey League these days. But Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom has made himself a four-time Stanley Cupchampion because he is willing to do something a lot of other players are not get hacked and whacked while standing in front of an opposing goaltender inan attempt to deflect the puck past him. On the night before Thanksgiving, Holmstrom went to his "office" andscored two power-play goals in the Red Wings' 5-3 victory over the CalgaryFlames at Joe Louis Arena. The first came in the opening period when Holmstrom deflected Swedishcountryman Nicklas Lidstrom's shot from the point past Flames goaltender MiikkaKiprusoff at 6:14 for a 1-0 lead. "Nick is the biggest part of it," Holmstrom said. "He can reallyshoot the puck. Just find a way to shoot the puck. We've done that so manytimes." Overhearing Holmstrom's praise, Lidstrom smiled and said, "Thanks,Homer." But Lidstrom had some praise for Holmstrom as well, recognizing the effort thatgoes into being able to deflect those pucks into the net. "His hand-eye coordination is unbelievable; hes so good at it,"Lidstrom said. "At the end of practice every day were taking slap shotsfrom the blue line and hes there getting sticks on pucks and trying to tipthem, so what we saw on that goal is what we do in practice every day." The Flames took the lead early in the second on goals from Jarome Iginla andBrendan Morrison. Defenseman Ian White, in his first game back since missing four with afractured cheekbone, scored the tying goal at 7:38 of the second period. Then Holmstrom went back to work in his office when the Wings had a power playearly in the third period. Holmstrom patiently waited, took a step around Kiprusoff and backhanded thepuck into the net for his third goal of the season. It tied him with BrendanShanahan for fifth on the Wings all-time list with 115 power-play goals. "Hes been working hard for us," Lidstrom said. "Hes a warrior,who works hard all of the time out there, so it was great to see him score acouple of goals and get rewarded with a couple of goals for standing in frontof the net and taking a beating all of the time." Lidstrom, who had two assists, reached a milestone of his own by playing in his1,514th game, tying him with Steve Yzerman for third on the Wings' all-timelist. He trails Gordie Howe (1,687) and Alex Delvecchio (1,549). Holmstrom's second marker ended up not being the winner as Olli Jokinen tied itat 3-all on a power-play goal 5:06 into the final period. But the Wings tookadvantage of a long 5-on-3 as Pavel Datsyuk scored the game winner. Lidstromand Henrik Zetterberg assisted on the go-ahead goal. "The power play really saved us, and it has to be good in games like thiswhere we know we won't have our legs," Zetterberg said. "We haven'tbeen stellar so far on the power play. Every goal we can take is good.Hopefully we can keep going." Valtteri Filppula scored the final goal. Datsyuk and White each finished with agoal and two assists. After a slow start, Datsyuk has seven points in threegames. While coach Mike Babcock didn't like everything about the game, he did likethat the Wings won their third in a row and improved to 12-7-1. "We always talk about if you get six wins in every 10, you got a chance toget 48 wins and that's in the playoffs," Babcock said. "So that's 12now after 20 games so we're in a good spot." NOTES: The Wings sent defenseman Brendan Smith down to Grand Rapids andrecalled forward Fabian Brunnstrom, whose wife is due to give birth to thecouple's first child this weekend.