By Ansar Khan

DETROIT -- Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock aptly summed up Pavel Datysuk's magical moves during shoot-outs and breakaways.

"There's no one who leaves the goalie in the corner like he does,'' Babcock said.

That explains where Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun went during Datsyuk's spectacular shoot-out goal Tuesday. By the time Datsyuk was done deking and juking, a helpless Vokoun had slid way out of his net.

At the other end of the ice, Wings goalie Manny Legace was having his own problems, allowing four goals on six shots, but he could empathize with Vokoun.

"He makes me look stupid all the time in practice,'' Legace said of Datsyuk. "He goes almost sideways at full speed. He's skating and all of the sudden, the puck's by your ear. And you watch him walk around (with a limp) and you say, `How does this guy even skate?' He's unbelievable.''

But it's his hands more than his feet that have made Datsyuk a highlight reel waiting to happen.

"He's really unstoppable when he makes moves likes that,'' Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. "You move too early, he goes the other way. If you stay there, he just goes across the net. You can try to poke-check him, but he's one of the best stick-handlers, so he'll stick-handle it away from you. The best decision would be to just stay in the middle of the net and hope you get an arm or a glove on it.''

Datsyuk said the move he used on Vokoun was the same one he used during his memorable breakaway goal against Dallas' Marty Turco during the 2003-04 season.

"After that goal, I tried it against (Dwayne) Roloson on penalty shot (two games later),'' Datsyuk said. "It didn't work, so I stopped with it. Everybody forget, maybe.''

Datsyuk has at least a point in 13 of his last 14 games (seven goals, 16 assists). He's already established a career high with 82 points (ninth in the NHL) and is four goals short of equaling his career-best total of 30, set in 2003-04.

"He's pretty amazing,'' Babcock said. "The thing about Pavel, he takes a lot of pride in making sure the people around him score. Lots of times I'll say, `Pav, shoot it in the net,' but his focus is on distributing the puck and making sure everyone is rolling.''