Hull Makes His Key Point Count

This time, there were no third-period dramatics for the Detroit Red Wings. The drama came instead in a historic overtime.

Brett Hull scored 1:51 into the extra session and passed former King Marcel Dionne for third place on the all-time goals list in Detroit’s 3-2 victory Monday over the Kings.

The Kings scored twice in the third period to force the issue, but the night belonged to Hull, who scored in his trademark way, snapping in a one-timer from the left circle while on his right knee and sending home a delighted crowd of 20,066 at Joe Louis Arena.

Hull, 39, has 732 goals and trails only Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801).

“Quite an honor,” Hull said. “Marcel Dionne was a great player. It was good timing for us. We gave away a two-goal lead. Thankfully, we came back and won it.”

The Kings were thankful to take a point after a listless 40 minutes left them a period away from an empty evening.

Michael Cammalleri, who spent his college years playing for the University of Michigan, made things interesting with 9:06 left and Martin Straka tied the score with 2:10 left.

But the Kings couldn’t stop Hull from stuffing two points in the Red Wings’ pockets.

“If you had to have somebody score the wining goal against you in overtime and he’s playing the Los Angeles Kings, where Marcel Dionne played, is that a sense of the dramatic or not?” King Coach Andy Murray said.

“If we’d known beforehand that was scripted this way and there was absolutely no way we could go back in a time capsule and change it, having him score the goal was probably fitting. I guess we saw history here tonight.”

The Kings also saw another player get injured.

Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky was struck in the right arm by a puck early in the third period during a Red Wing power play.

Visnovsky did not return and will be further evaluated today.

His availability for Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Thrashers is unclear.

“We’re not sure, probably a bruise,” Murray said. “We’re optimistic he can play.”

The Red Wings played poorly in a 5-2 loss Saturday to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but created no doubt they would show up against the Kings.

Brendan Shanahan scored 2:27 into the first period and Pavel Datsyuk put Detroit ahead, 2-0, on a power-play goal 6:25 into the period.

The Kings got away with giving up the first two goals Saturday against the Washington Capitals and scored seven of the next eight in a 7-3 blowout. But any comeback Monday would have required a lot more than picking on one of the worst teams in the league.

King coaches ripped into the team after each of the first two periods.

“I was really unhappy with the way we played the first 40 minutes,” Murray said.

“The Red Wings are obviously a great team but we shouldn’t make it any easier for them. They’ll get enough themselves. We played soft in the first two periods.”

But the Kings pulled within 2-1 when Cammalleri knocked in Luc Robitaille’s no-look pass from behind the net. Straka tied the score with his third goal in four games, stealing Jiri Fischer’s attempted clearing pass and slapping it past Dominik Hasek.

“We worked 20 minutes and got a point in Detroit,” defenseman Aaron Miller said. “That’s something pretty good.”

But, as in most ties and overtime losses, there’s a flip side to almost every angle.

“The coaches weren’t happy with our effort in the first and second periods,” Miller said.

“We weren’t doing anything aggressive. We looked very tentative.”