Red Wings equal NHL record with 20th straight home win

Niklas Lidstrom

The Detroit Red Wings equalled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night.

The Wings had refused to talk about the record but coach Mike Babcock finally acknowledged what happened after Johan Franzen scored the tie-breaking goal early in the third period for the victory.

"We haven't talked about this at all. We talked about it tonight because it happened,” Babcock insisted.

The record was set by the Boston Bruins during the 1929-30 season and was matched by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1976 and Detroit can break that record with a win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night.

"We don't want to talk about it. We just want to keep it going. Just go out there and play and win games. That's the approach we've had,” defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said.

To equal the record the Wings had to do it the hard way; coming from behind twice as they let an early lead slip against one of the NHL’s premier teams. Goals from Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg levelled the match at 3-3 in the second period before Franzen scored his 22nd goal of the season 52 seconds in the final period.

It was Franzen’s 10th goal of the season that has won a game and the winger admitted it was a good feeling to equal a record that only two other teams have achieved in the past.

"It felt like it was a little bit of a special game," Franzen said in response to the Wings fans who wildly chanted "Let's go Red Wings!" in the final minutes.

The Red Wings celebrated another record with Lidstrom who played his 1,550th game, the most by an NHL player who spent his entire career with one team breaking the mark set by former Red Wings great Alex Delvecchio.

"That's something special. He came down on Friday and congratulated me and we took a picture together. That means a lot to me,” Lidstrom said.