Red Wings Blank Blues as Trip Continues

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16 years ago

The Detroit Red Wings returned to the road Wednesday night, resuming a five-game road trip that was broken up by the Christmas break and picking up a 5-0 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Goalie Chris Osgood made 20 saves to earn his second shutout of the season. It was the 45th of his career.

Nicklas Lidstrom, fresh off of signing a two-year contract extension, scored the game’s opening goal just 2:26 in. On a bad line change by the Blues Lidstrom got in behind their defense and stepped into the left faceoff circle for a blast over Manny Legace’s shoulder.

Jiri Hudler put Detroit up by a pair 5:01 later. Mikael Samuelsson carried the puck down the right wing and sent it out front to Hudler. His tip shot was blocked but the Czech knocked in the rebound.

Valtteri Filppula scored two quick second period goals, chasing Legace from the crease.

At 5:31, with the Red Wings on a power play, Pavel Datsyuk carried the puck down the right wing into the Blues’ zone and faked out defender Christian Backman, sending a pass to the far side of the net for Filppula to tap in.

Just 2:06 later, Samuelsson tied up the puck on the left wing boards and Hudler came in to pick it up. Hudler took it down low and then passed it out to the slot for Filppula to put past Legace.

The former Red Wing was replaced by Hannu Toivonen for the remainder of the game.

Brian Rafalski would score the only goal against Toivonen at 9:11 of the third period, with the Red Wings skating 4-on-3. After passing back and forth with Lidstrom at the top of the circles, Rafalski dropped to the left faceoff dot for a one-timer into the top of the net.

Toivonen stopped 10 of the 11 shots he faced while Legace made 12 stops on 16 Detroit shots.

Two of Detroit’s goals came on their three power play chances. St. Louis had five power play opportunities, including one five-on-three.

The Red Wings’ road trip continues in Denver on Thursday when they face the Colorado Avalanche.

Detroit was without forwards Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, and Kirk Maltby for yet another game.