GAME THREAD: NHL: CALGARY (10-14) at DETROIT (15-8)

DETROIT (Ticker) -- Pavel Datsyuk's stickhandling magic burnedthe Calgary Flames.


Datsyuk scored two goals and assisted on another to lead theDetroit Red Wings to a 5-3 victory against the Flames onTuesday.


And he wasn't even feeling his best.


"Today, I don't feel energetic," Datsyuk said. "Today, I wentstrong (to the net), not much dancing."


Datsyuk's teammates were surprised to hear that.


"I'd like to see him when he's feeling good," Detroit captainNicklas Lidstrom said with a laugh. "As another player, it's funto watch him."


Goalie Chris Osgood gave Datsyuk credit for the win.

"That second (goal), especially," said Osgood, who made 19saves. "(The Flames) come out of the second period down, 3-2,after that 5-on-3 goal and he moves the puck through four guys'feet and buries it in the top of the net.


"They have to be thinking, 'Here he goes again.' We play ashard as we can for eight minutes and he grabs the puck, goes endto end and scores a phenomenal goal. He's a great weapon tohave."


The victory allowed Detroit (16-6-2, 34 points) to overtake idleOttawa (16-5-1, 33 points) for the most points in the NHL.

With Detroit leading, 3-2, entering the third period, Datsyukgave his team a two-goal cushion just 37 seconds into thesession.


Datsyuk stickhandled through three Calgary defenders andbackhanded a shot over goaltender Curtis McElhinney for hissecond tally of the game.


Calgary halved the deficit when Alex Tanguay scored on anodd-man rush at 3:02, but Valtteri Filppula scored just overthree minutes later after a Flames turnover to give the RedWings a 5-3 lead.


Each team scored during a 5-on-3 power play in the secondperiod.


Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom scored his 13th goal of the season andninth on the power play at 4:36 of the second period.Holmstrom accepted a feed in the slot from Datsyuk and fired thepuck past Miikka Kiprusoff to give the Red Wings a 3-1 lead.

Kiprusoff, who stopped 12 shots before taking a shot off themask by Lidstrom, was replaced by McElhinney.


McElhinney, playing in only his third game this season, stoppedall 11 shots he faced in the second period. He would finishwith 18 saves.


Detroit's Jiri Hudler and Chris Chelios were both in the penaltybox at 14:03 when Dion Phaneuf's blast from the point beatOsgood to cut into Detroit's lead at 3-2.


Defenseman Robyn Regehr opened the scoring just over 11 minutesinto the first period with a shot from just inside the blue linewhich beat Osgood on the glove side.


The Red Wings rallied with two goals in a 23-second span to takea 2-1 lead.


Datsyuk went around defenseman Cory Sarich before wristing ashot from the slot that just got under the crossbar at 15:49.

"That was an awesome goal," Flames captain Jarome Iginla said."To score that kind of goal has to be a big boost for their teamand for their fans."


Kris Draper gave Detroit a 2-1 lead just 23 seconds later.

Niklas Kronwall took a shot from the point that hit Kirk Maltbyand deflected to Draper, who deposited the puck into the opencorner of the net.


"We had a real strong start, but we seemed to lose confidenceafter they scored those goals and we never really recovered,"Calgary coach Mike Keenan said.


Draper's night ended soon thereafter.


The former Selke Award winner was helped from the ice with asprained left knee after he fell awkwardly along the boards latein the first period.


He did not return to the game and had an MRI late Tuesday night.