Red Wings 5, Blues 3

DETROIT (AP) -The Detroit Red Wings won the special teams battle and the game on Friday night.

Kris Draper's short-handed goal with 6:29 left broke a tie, and Tomas Holmstrom had two goals and an assist to lift Detroit to a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Henrik Zetterberg added a goal and three assists, and Dan Cleary got the other goal for Detroit, which won its 10th straight at home. Nicklas Lidstrom had three assists, and Dominik Hasek stopped 24 shots.

The Red Wings' special teams struggled early in the season, but have improved as the season has unfolded.

"We seem to be getting the pieces together (on the special teams)," said Holmstrom, who had a power-play goal.

Lee Stempniak, Ryan Johnson, and Keith Tkachuk scored for St. Louis. Manny Legace made 24 saves.

"Special teams was the difference," Tkachuk said. "Our power play didn't get it done at the end of the game. ... That was a winnable game for us."

The Blues were 0-for-6 on the power play and are 0-for-31 with the extra man in the five games against the Red Wings this season.

Draper scored the winner when he knocked Lidstrom's pass, which was tipped by Stempniak, out of the air and into the net to finish off a 2-on-1 break. Cleary was in the penalty box for goaltender interference.

"I was kidding Nick on the bench, asking him if he thought it was going in if I didn't touch it," Draper said of his ninth goal. "He said 'It doesn't matter, you have to make sure it goes in."'

Cleary added his 20th goal, into an empty net, with 28 seconds left.

Despite the win, Detroit was often sloppy, turning the puck over in its own zone.

"In the end, we won the game. That's most important," Hasek said. "But, however, I feel like we made many mistakes, many turnovers."

Tkachuk tied it at 3 with his 16th goal 9:56 into the third period.

Holmstrom's second goal of the game had given Detroit the lead just 2:14 earlier. He scored his 18th goal on a breakaway, after taking a pass from Zetterberg.

Johnson tied the game at 2 with 5:19 left in the second period. He sent a pass from Dallas Drake under Hasek. Drake had stolen the puck from Pavel Datsyuk just inside the St. Louis blue line.

Holmstrom gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal 8:29 into the middle period. He redirected Lidstrom's shot from the point past Legace.

"We played a great game. Solid from top to bottom," said Legace, a former Red Wing. "A couple of lucky goals."

Each team scored on its first shot.

Zetterberg gave Detroit a 1-0 lead 33 seconds into the game with his 21st goal. He cut in off left wing, and put a backhand shot under the crossbar. Stempniak tied it 33 seconds later when he beat Hasek from the right circle with his 16th goal.

"I thought we started real good, and then the next shift we gave it up," Red Wings' coach Mike Babcock said.

Notes: Detroit D Mathieu Schneider returned after missing 10 games with a strained right knee ligament. ... St. Louis RW Bill Guerin played his 1,000th game.