Derick Brassard's OT goal lifts Rangers over Red Wings

For the third consecutive game, the Rangers went beyond the 60-minute limit. They lost, in a shootout, to the Blues on Monday. They fell, in another shootout, to the Jets on Saturday.

But Wednesday night, at 1:50 of overtime, the Rangers pulled one out on a power play, as Dan Girardi one-timed a shot from the point and the puck trickled away from a diving Jonas Gustavsson's glove and was put in by Derick Brassard for a 4-3 win over the Red Wings.

"The shot in overtime, it was a lucky rebound and I saw it," said Brassard, who also assisted on the Rangers' power-play goal in the first period. "When you shoot it, there's rebounds, it could go in, there's more chance to create offense."

Forty-six seconds into overtime, the Rangers went on the power play when Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk was whistled for tripping.

In the third, with the Rangers up 3-2 after Lee Stempniak buried a wrister on a 2-on-1 with Dominic Moore at 12:10, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock took a late risk that worked.

He pulled Gustavsson with 2:50 to play, and on a 5-on-3 with Marc Staal in the penalty box for holding Pavel Datsyuk's stick in a scrum, Tomas Tatar scored with 7.7 left in regulation.

Martin St. Louis had been called for a hook with 1:48 left, but Justin Abdelkader also went off for embellishing, and Detroit still had a 5-on-4 advantage with the empty net. Then, during a mad scramble with 30 seconds to go, Staal was sent off.

Henrik Lundqvist, who stopped a penalty shot but also allowed a softy that tied the game in the second, made 25 saves as the Blueshirts moved to 6-4-2. Detroit dropped to 6-3-4.

"You don't want to give a team we are going to be fighting against an extra point," Lundqvist said, "but they made some good plays at the end. Most importantly, we fought back and got the two points."

Tied at 2, the Rangers had to kill all but 24 seconds of St. Louis' late second-period hook to open the third period. Lundqvist fought off a couple shots, and then another by Darren Helm with about five minutes gone. At the other end, Gustavsson stopped Staal's wrister off a drop pass by Brassard on a rush.

With about eight minutes gone, a quick 2-on-1 just missed connecting when St. Louis' pass from the right side just missed Rick Nash in front.

At 9:34, Carl Hagelin avoided a four-minute high-sticking penalty when his blade caught Danny Dekeyser in the nose and left him bleeding. The officials missed the high stick because it occurred behind the play.

In the second period, Lundqvist preserved a 1-0 lead by stopping a penalty shot from Gustav Nyquist at 5:51, knocking the shot down with his glove after it was ruled that Kevin Klein covered the puck in the crease.

Then Matt Hunwick's pass sprung St. Louis, who beat Gustavsson low on a breakaway for a 2-0 lead at 6:39.

"They just missed a penalty shot and we go up 2-0, it's a big momentum swing, but they really push," St. Louis said. "It took us a while to get the momentum back after they tied it up. But we stuck with it."

After scoring just once in 10 games, St. Louis has scored three in the last two. It was Hunwick's second assist and Michael Kostka's first point as a Ranger.

At that point, the Rangers appeared to have the game in hand, but the Wings scored twice in 13 seconds. Jakub Kindl fired a loose puck past Lundqvist at 12:02 with five seconds left on a Wings power play. It ended Lundqvist's shutout streak against Detroit at 211:08.

Lundqvist then allowed an unassisted softy at 12:15, when Dan Cleary's flipped shot from a bad angle squeezed between the post and his right arm. Play was halted for a review, which clearly indicted a goal.

Nash had opened the scoring in the first period. With Henrik Zetterberg in the box for tripping at 5:23, the power play clicked. Matt Hunwick fed Brassard from the blue line, and Brassard's slapper from the left circle deflected off Nash's backside and past Gustavsson at 6:36.

It was the 10th goal of the season for Nash and gave him points in nine of 12 games.