Red Wings at Oilers
THE STORY: If the Detroit Red Wings hope to continue their dominance over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, they'll have to do it without Jimmy Howard. The All-Star goaltender suffered a broken right index finger in Thursday's shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks and will miss at least two games. Detroit, which is 2-1-0 on its five-game road trip, has won seven straight contests against Edmonton and is 14-1-6 in the last 21 meetings. The Oilers, who have captured four of their last five at Rexall Place and are 2-0-0 on its three-game homestand. Detroit has won nine of its last 10 contests while Edmonton is 3-0-1 over its last four overall.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FSN (Detroit)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (35-16-1): Howard was injured early in the third period of Detroit's triumph in Vancouver as he made a blocker save on a shot by Maxim Lapierre. "I went blocker down to take away everything down low and Lapierre spun around and shot it," Howard said. "It missed my blocker and caught me in the finger." The league leader with 32 victories, Howard is anxious to get back in the crease. "I've played with broken fingers before," he said. "I'm going to fiddle around with my sticks and cut some notches and hopefully I'll be able to hold on to (the stick)."
ABOUT THE OILERS (20-26-5): After joining Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey in Edmonton's record book with an eight-point performance against Chicago on Thursday, Sam Gagner was in awe of his accomplishment. "I wouldn't be in the same breath as Gretzky or Coffey if it was anything but this," he said. "It is a great lesson to never set limits. The great players that have played here before never did that, and I was never thinking about that. I was just looking at continuing to play and we just kept scoring. It was crazy." Rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is likely to be back in the lineup after having missed 13 games with a separated shoulder. Despite the lengthy absence, the 18-year-old still leads all NHL rookies with 35 points.
OVERTIME:
1. The Oilers have not beaten the Red Wings since March 19, 2010 in a shootout.
2. Edmonton scored eight goals against Chicago on Thursday. It totaled nine tallies over its previous five contests.
3. Detroit is 6-0 in shootouts this season.