In a chance-for-chance, toe-to-toe type of game, Detroit Red Wings' goalie and penalty-killing simply wouldn't wilt. Jimmy Howard stopped Jared Boll on a penalty shot and finished with 34 saves to help the Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 on Friday night in a fight for the Western Conference lead before a rare capacity crowd of 18,391 at Nationwide Arena. Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit, coming off their worst defeat of the season, a 5-1 loss at Atlanta on Wednesday night. The Red Wings killed all five Columbus power plays en route to their ninth victory in their last 12 games. "Obviously your best penalty killer is your goaltender, but I thought our guys battled hard," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "As the game went on, I thought our penalty kill got stronger and stronger and we didn't have to rely on Howard quite as much." Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=301126029
