Zetterberg's Hat Trick Propels Wings Over Ducks

Henrik Zetterberg popped in 3 goals and also added 2 assists to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 7-4 win over Anaheim Ducks. That's Zetterberg's best-ever night in the NHL. Even with that great performance, Zetterberg is still only 13th overall in points so far in the scoring race trailing Los Angeles Kings star Anze Kopitar who currently sits atop the NHL with 14 goals, 17 assists for 31 points. Zetterberg's 5 points did propel him into the lead for most points by a Red Wing and no team member is even in the top 30 league-wide for points, but that shows a overall balanced attack on Detroit's part. You never know who to watch because goals can come from just about anyone.

The Red Wings jumped out to a 2-0 lead on power play goals by Dan Cleary (his 4th) and Brian Rafalski (2nd), but the Ducks kept coming, with right winger Corey Perry getting his 13th goal to cut the lead to 2-1 about 8 minutes into the 2nd period. Perry's having a good year so far with 13 goals, 10 assists for 23 points (one more than Zetterberg!) and is currently on a 11 game points scoring streak.

The 3rd period it all broke loose as the teams combined for 8 goals between them and Zetterberg getting 3 of Detroit's final four goals. Anaheim's Bobby Ryan scored at 3:47 into the 3rd to tie the game 2-2 with a power play goal. About a minute 20 later Pavel Datsyuk put Detroit ahead again until Joffrey Lupul took the air out of Detroit's sails. After that it was primarily the Henrik Zetterberg show as he netted his 3 goals in the final 11 minutes of the game. Ryan Getzlaf scored his 2nd of the season and he also had a monster game for the Ducks as he assisted on all 3 of Anaheim's other goals).

Ducks netminder Jonas Hiller was victimized by Zetterberg one more time as well as allowing Darren Helm to score with a little over 2 minutes left. At that point Anaheim pulled Hiller and Zetterberg got the empty netter.

Detroit next plays Nov 18th at home to the Dallas Stars, while Anaheim heads to Pittsburgh for a Monday night game against the Pens.