DETROIT -- Jimmy Howard failed to stop Alex Ovechkins shot in the final seconds of regulation. Marvin Jones Jr Womens Jersey . But that was the last time he let a puck get past him in a successful return to the ice. Patrick Eaves scored on Detroits seventh attempt in a shootout and Howard denied Washington seven times, giving the Red Wings a 4-3 victory over the Capitals on Friday night. Howard made 26 saves after missing four games with an injured left knee. "I felt surprisingly good," he said. "I didnt have any issues at all with the knee, which I think is a great sign because I came back last time and still felt it every once in a while." Ovechkin tied the game with 7 seconds left in the third period, but was one of seven shooters who couldnt score on Howard. "I had opportunity before to put puck in the net," Ovechkin said. "Howard played really well." Detroits Gustav Nyquist scored a tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, but the Red Wings couldnt prevent the NHLs goal-scoring leader from sending the game to overtime. The Capitals pulled their goaltender late in regulation and the move paid off. After a short break on the bench, Ovechkin had time and space to wind up for a slap shot from above the circles that sent the puck past Howard and into the net to make it 3-all. "Ovechkins a dangerous guy," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. Ovechkin has 39 goals this season, his highest total since scoring 50 times during the 2009-10 season The banged-up Red Wings welcomed back two key players: Howard and Henrik Zetterberg Zetterberg had missed two games with a back injury. "I think Zetterberg on the bench really helped," Babcock said. "I dont care who you are, when a lot of your best players arent there, youre wondering where the next goals coming from." Michal Neuvirth stopped 42 shots to match a career high. One of his first was perhaps his best, flashing his glove to snag Nyquists shot off a rebound just in front of the net midway through the first period. He also gave Washington a shot to win in the shootout, stopping the first six shots he faced. "Very frustrating being so close to a win, but at least we got one point," he said. Jason Chimera put the Capitals ahead 1-0 at the 15:24 mark of the first period on a power play and teammate Casey Wellman tied it at 2-all midway through the third, scoring on his third straight shot in a 2-second sequence. "Took a couple of whacks at it and it went in," Wellman said. Washington had a chance to tie the game again when it went on the power play with 3:29 left in the game. Howard, though, helped the Red Wings stay ahead by smothering a shot from Ovechkin. "He made huge saves on the penalty kill late," Babcock said. "They had good chances and he made great saves." The lead didnt last much longer because Ovechkin made it 3-all late in regulation. "People dont realize how hard that shot is," Capitals coach Adam Oates said. "The ice is terrible at that time, the pass comes a long way. Just to get good wood on that puck is very difficult. He seems to shine at that moment." Drew Miller tied the game early in the second and Danny DeKeyser gave the Red Wings their first lead late in the period. "All in all, the guys worked really hard and we scored a goal late," Oates said. "I think the guys gotta feel pretty good about that. Yeah, you want to win it, but I think they feel pretty good." Howard helped, too, and will be on the U.S. team at the Winter Olympics in two weeks if he can stay healthy. Detroit star forward Pavel Datsyuk missed his 12th straight game with a lower-body injury. Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said he hopes Datsyuk can play at least one game in the next week. The captain of Russias team has vowed he will be healthy enough to go for gold in his home country, but he declined to talk to a reporter following a postgame chat with Ovechkin, an Olympic teammate, that lasted about 10 minutes. Datsyuk often picked up, bent and extended his left leg as he talked with Ovechkin. "We just talked about his injury," Ovechkin said. "I hope hes going to be OK." NOTES: Washington defenceman Mike Green was scratched with a concussion, a night after he was hit hard into the boards on a check by Columbus Boone Jenner. "Were going through the process of testing him," Oates said. ... Nyquist has scored in five of six games and has 10 goals in 29 games this season, putting him in contention to replace injured Red Wings teammate Johan Franzen on Swedens team at the Sochi Games. ... Neuvirth also made 42 saves on Feb. 5, 2010. Jahlani Tavai Lions Jersey . -- Another baseball tradition is about to largely disappear: a manager, with a crazed look in his eyes, charging the field and getting into a face-to-face shouting match with an umpire. Calvin Johnson Jersey . The result was a game-winning, power-play goal. Chiasson snapped a third-period tie and lifted the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 victory on Monday night.TORONTO - They thought Marcus Stroman could be really good. The young man, never lacking confidence, thought he could be really good. But there were issues the young pitcher needed to work out. Would Stroman be able to stay on top of his four-seam fastball often enough to prevent it from riding up in the zone, which had been a repeated issue for a pitcher of his diminutive size? Did his stuff, a plus fastball and a nasty curveball/slider combination, translate better to late-game relief or would he be a starter? Since his second recall and insertion into the starting rotation, Stroman hasnt been really good. Hes been great. And he isnt the pitcher they thought he would be. He isnt the pitcher he thought he would be. Whats changed? Stroman has developed a sinking fastball which, for the 23-year-old Long Islander, is a game-changer. "That pitch has allowed me to be so much more efficient," said Stroman. "Whereas everyone used to say he cant go deep into games, go deep into games, hes too whatever, whatever, whatever, its really allowed me to go deep into games because its a pitch that I can rely on to keep on the ground. I get big double plays when I need them with that pitch and I get a lot of early outs. I dont have to be as fine with that pitch when Im throwing it." Exhibit A of the new, efficient, Stroman is his most recent start, a 93-pitch, three-hit shutout of the Chicago Cubs on Monday night. He recorded 15 groundball outs (14 groundballs, one of which was a double play) and other than a first inning comeback line drive which almost beheaded Stroman, nary a ball was hit hard. You get the sense Stroman is surprising even himself. "I would have never gone 93 pitches, nine innings ever the way I used to pitch," said Stroman. "It wasnt realistic. I was a four-seam guy; I was a strikeout guy. I always had pretty good control but I always used to have to worry about really locating my heater." The metamorphosis began in the most innocent of ways. It was around the All-Star Break when Stroman, coming off a trying start against the Angels in Anaheim, was sitting in his apartments living room with a baseball in hand. He was, as he said he often does, messing around with different grips. He came across something that "felt rright" in his hand. Will Harris Womens Jersey. Stroman decided he would take the grip into his next bullpen session. He liked what he saw. He didnt change his release point. The ball naturally sank. Confident he could execute the pitch in major league game action, Stroman experimented in his first post-All-Star Break start, which featured seven innings of shutout ball in a Blue Jays 4-1 win over Texas on July 19. Stroman knew he had something when he froze Shin-Soo Choo with a full count sinker. "He just took it and walked back because Id never thrown it," said Stroman. "That might have been the first one I threw in that game, the second one I threw in that game and after I threw that pitch and I had that movement on it and I saw his take, thats when it started to take off." Stroman has trouble describing how he grips the pitch. "Its not your conventional two-seam by any means," said Stroman. "Thats what I used to try and throw and I had no success with it. I hold all my pitches pretty weird. I kind of just threw my spin and torque the ball in my hand like I do a lot of my pitches with the two-seam and felt really comfortable." Stroman was a high strikeout, high flyball minor league pitcher. Now, hes working a 55-percent groundball rate. The punch outs still will be there but they wont be as frequent. Stromans struck out 20.7-percent of big league hitters hes faced. He fanned 30.8-percent of hitters at Triple-A Buffalo but that was back when he was a different pitcher. Last year, at Double-A New Hampshire, his strikeout rate was 28.1-percent. Some of the strikeout regression is, no doubt, the result of facing big league hitters. But the new approach factors in, too. Stroman still has the plus four-seam fastball. Hes still got his filthy curveball and slider. The sinker gives him yet another look, another way to get hitters out. He can never have too many options. "Im still throwing all the pitches, it just gives me another pitch to rely on too," said Stroman. "Im always going to throw all my pitches. Im not necessarily going to take pitches out but having a sinker definitely helps, especially since Im a starter and the whole goal of being a starter is to keep your team in the game, late into games." ' ' '
