Zetterberg scores 3 goals, Red Wings beat Coyotes 7-4 to tie series

Zetterberg scores 3 times, Red Wings even series

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Henrik Zetterberg wasn’t celebrating his first hat trick in the playoffs after helping the Detroit Red Wings even their first-round Western Conference series with the Phoenix Coyotes at a game apiece.

Instead, his focus was squarely on the rest of the series.

“It’s only two games in an you got to keep going and play good for a longer period of time,” Zetterberg said after Detroit’s 7-4 victory Friday night. “Nothing is done yet. We stole one game. That’s what we wanted to do.”

Zetterberg scored the winner with 6:06 left.

Linemate Valtteri Filppula scored twice for Detroit, which won its 50th consecutive postseason game in which it has scored at least four goals.

“Those guys were good here tonight,” coach Mike Babcock said. “You need your best players to be good, but you need everyone to be good.

“I thought it was a step tonight for our team because it looked like we’ve now engaged in the playoffs. Until you do that, you have a hard time winning.”

Justin Abdelkader and Pavel Datsyuk also scored for the Red Wings.

Shane Doan, Matthew Lombardi, Wojtek Wolski and Keith Yandle scored for Phoenix.

Game 3 is Sunday in Detroit.

Zetterberg gave Detroit a 5-4 lead when he gathered a rebound off a shot by Todd Bertuzzi and fed it into an open net. He completed the scoring with an empty-net goal with 47 seconds left.

Filppula’s second goal came on the power play with 2:06 to go and put the game away. Detroit outscored Phoenix 4-1 in the third period to avoid an 0-2 playoff hole for the first time since 2003.

“We made an error to give them the lead, then we got back in it, and the errors continues after that,” Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said.

Doan scored on a 2-on-1 rush with Vernon Fiddler to tie it at 4 with 10:36 to play.

Abdelkader stripped the puck from Wolski near the blue line then beat Ilya Bryzgalov high 1-on-1 for Detroit’s first lead, 4-3, 2:32 into the third.

Abdelkader spent much of the season in the minors and hadn’t played for the Red Wings since Jan. 27. He had three goals in 50 games and hadn’t scored since coming up with two goals on Nov. 11 at Columbus.

“He’s going to be a real good player in this league,” said Babcock, who added the physical 6-foot-1, 212 pound forward to his lineup after Detroit got outhit 43-20 in Game 1. “He’s going to be a guy who can wear out other people and abuse defensemen, stand up for his teammates. But he’s in the growth process. To chip in as a fourth-line center, it was positive.”

The game was tied at 3 after a frenetic second period in which the teams combined for five goals a 3:58 span, the third-fastest five goals in playoff history.

“That’s not our game, and we know that and we have to play a simpler game,” Doan said. “We played into their hands for the most part. Half way through the second (period) we started thinking that we could trade (goals) with them, and we were doing OK. But when we make that many mistakes they’re going to beat us.”

Zetterberg ended three-plus periods of scoreless play for the Red Wings when he tipped in a pass from Filppula on Detroit’s second power play at 6:27 of the second, tying it at 1.

Wolski answered 38 seconds later with his second goal of the postseason. After Howard made a glove save, he put the puck back in play and Wolski got to it first, beating the rookie stick side.

Yandle put home a rebound after around skating around Bertuzzi and beating Zetterberg to the puck to give the Coyotes a 1-0 advantage at 10:23 of the first. It was his second goal of the series.

Fiddler was shaken up with 3:42 to play and left for the locker room. He is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

NOTES: The record for the fastest five goals in a playoff game is 3:06 in Chicago’s 6-2 victory over the Minnesota North Stars on April 21, 1985. Second is 3:20 in the North Stars’ 6-5 win over Philadelphia on April 29, 1980. … Datsyuk played in his 100th postseason game.