Perfect end to the perfect weekend--Red Wings 5, Blues 3

The Red Wings came into tonight's game against the Blues after an overtime win against the Oilers. The Blue had won against the Canadiens in their last game. But for tonight's game? Let's get to that.

Adam Cracknell scored the opening goal of the game and the first of his career at 9:17 of the first period. Cam Janssen passed the puck to Ryan Reaves at the top of the face-off dot to Jimmy Howard's right. Reaves passed it to Cracknell, down low to Howard's right, and a quick release on the shot put the Blues up 1-0. Ruslan Salei scored just his second goal of the season just a few minutes later. Dan Cleary forced a turnover and the puck landed on the stick of Salei for a one-time, tying the game at 1.

A mere 16 seconds later, Darren Helm scored his 11th of the season as he banged home a loose puck in the crease. Justin Abdelkader entered the zone off a pass from Kris Draper and as he got close to the goal line, he threw it on net and created the rebound for Helm to clean up.

Follow the jump to see how the rest of the game turned out.

Niklas Kronwall scored a power-play goal at 18:35 of the second period. Ryan Reaves was in the box for holding Todd Bertuzzi to give the Wings the power play. Kronwall's shot from the blueline deflected off the stick of Andy McDonald past Jaroslav Halak for a 3-1 lead.

David Backes scored at 3:48 of the third period. Backes took a shot from his knees that deflected back to him for a second chance and he buried it past Howard. About 3 minutes after that Matt D'Agostini scored on a deflection from a Kevin Shattenkirk shot. Shattenkirk did a great job to keep the puck in the zone and Jonathan Ericsson tried to step up to block the shot, but it got through and D'Agostini deflected it past Howard.

Pavel Datsyuk scored an absolutely beautiful goal in the third period. Kronwall dumped the puck into the zone and Tomas Holmstrom picked it up. Holmstrom quickly passed to Datsyuk. Datsyuk squeezed between Ian Cole and TJ Oshie, deked out Roman Polak and beat Halak far post for a 4-3 lead.

Justin Abdelkader scored an insurance goal a minute later as Kronwall put an outlet pass from the defensive zone up to Abdelkader. Abdelkader briefly delayed and then moved across the slot to open up Halak's five-hole, a perfect spot for his shot to land, 5-3 Detroit.

The Red Wings play next on Wednesday against the Capitals.