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Blues hold off Red Wings

Dec 24, 2010 - 8:17 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Patrik Berglund tallied twice as St. Louis nearly wasted a three-goal lead but hung on to clip Detroit, 4-3, at Scottrade Center.

Erik Johnson and Matt D'Agostini also scored for the Blues, who have won two in a row and three of five. Jaroslav Halak picked up his first win in five starts with 35 saves.

Johan Franzen, Patrick Eaves and Nicklas Lidstrom hit the net for the Red Wings, who lost for the third time in four games. Chris Osgood was once again denied a chance for his 400th career victory, giving up four goals on 25 shots.

Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg was a little concerned that Detroit allowed four goals in a game for the fourth straight time.

"It's not easy to win games if you have to score five every day," he said. "It's something you have to look after."

D'Agostini rippled the net at 5:51 of the second period when he broke in alone and beat Osgood with a backhander to give the home team a 4-1 advantage, but Lidstrom's 5-on-3 power-play score at 11:33 and an even-strength goal from Eaves at 16:51 got Detroit within 4-3 after 40 minutes.

Halak withstood a Detroit surge in the final five minutes of the contest. Several Wings chances from in close barely missed the net, then Franzen stared down a half-open net with under two minutes to play, but his shot hit Blues defenseman Eric Brewer's knee with Halak scrambling back into the crease.

Osgood was called to the bench with 1:06 remaining, and in a strange sequence shortly thereafter, two Blues tries to the empty net wound up hitting each post.

It didn't cost the home team in the end, however, as St. Louis earned its first win over the Red Wings this season after being outscored 12-5 in two losses at Detroit.

Johnson's blast on the power play got the Blues on the board at 13:21 of the opening period, but Franzen responded 30 seconds later for the Red Wings.

St. Louis got two scores from Berglund within a four-plus-minute span to take a 3-1 edge to intermission. His second tally, coming at 18:47 of the first, deflected off Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall and sailed by Osgood.

"It's real nice to get the confidence going," Berglund said. "You get more confidence when you get early goals."

Game Notes

Halak had gone 0-3-1 in his previous four outings since a win on December 9 against Columbus...Earlier Thursday, the Wings announced that forward Pavel Datsyuk will miss four weeks with a broken right hand suffered in Wednesday's win over Vancouver...Berglund snapped a 10-game goal drought and posted his first multi-goal effort since March 24, 2009 against Los Angeles.