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Osgood continues strong play in Red Wings' seventh straight win

Dec 11, 2007 - 4:48 AM By Jim Diamond PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Ticker) - Valtteri Filppula scored his first career penalty-shot goal to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday night.

The Red Wings survived a last-minute power play to record their seventh straight win and improve their league-leading point total to 46.

Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood made 30 stops, including several in the final minute to improve to 14-1-1. He is 2-0 vs. Nashville and is 17-5-3 lifetime against the Predators.

"I like playing here (Nashville), ever since I played in St. Louis I have had success here," Osgood said. "It is another one of those teams that I can't put my finger on it, but I just like to play in their buildings and play against them."

"I thought Ozzie did a good job, especially in the third," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "We bent but we didn't break and we found a way to get a win on the road."

Tomas Kopecky scored the game's first goal at the 7:10 mark of the opening period. Pavel Datsyuk carried the puck into the Nashville zone along the left boards. He whipped a cross-ice pass to Kopecky in the right circle, and he one-timed the puck by Nashville goaltender Dan Ellis.

Filppula doubled the Detroit lead at 15:06 of the first when he converted on a penalty shot. He was awarded the penalty shot after being taken down from behind on a clear breakaway by Nashville's Jerred Smithson, who made a diving attempt to sweep the puck off of Filppula's stick, but missed and took out the feet of the Detroit center.

"I'm glad that (the referee) called that because I could not get a shot off, and I think that is the biggest reason the penalty shot was called," Filppula said. "He just hit my legs; it was a pretty clear tripping call."

"When you see (Filppula) taking it to the net and using his speed, it makes him a better player and it makes us a better team," Babcock added.

On the penalty shot, Filppula faked Ellis with a forehand, and then quickly shifted to his backhand, lifting the puck high over the prone Ellis.

"I lost my footing a little bit on the penalty shot, and I didn't get enough push," Ellis said. "You have to give credit to that hockey team, they are the No. 1 team in the National Hockey League, and we put up a good fight, we just started our fight too late."

The goal was Detroit's first regular-season penalty shot goal since Igor Larionov recorded one November 22, 1995 against San Jose.

"I think if we get out of the first period down 1-0, we probably win the hockey game," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "You can't make as many mistakes as we did in the first. In the second and third we didn't make as many mistakes, and they didn't score any more goals."

Martin Gelinas cut the Red Wings lead in half with a shorthanded goal with 24 seconds remaining in the second period.

Nashville's David Legwand took the puck into the Detroit zone on a partial breakaway. Legwand had the puck knocked off of his stick, but Gelinas almost on the goal line to the right of the net took a backhand swipe at the puck and got just enough of it to squeeze it between the pads of Osgood.

"In the second and third, we played the type of game we want to play," Gelinas said. "We got the shorthanded goal and a lot of chances, but we just couldn't buy another one tonight."

"I knew he hit it because I heard him hit it, but I didn't see it because I was trying to get back on my feet as quickly as I could," Osgood said.

The shorthanded goal was the seventh of the season allowed by the Red Wings, the highest in the NHL.