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Osgood, Red Wings blank Blues

Dec 27, 2007 - 5:17 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- It's been a while, but the Detroit Red Wings finally left the Scottrade Center with a reason to celebrate.

Valtteri Filppula notched his first career multi-goal game and Chris Osgood made 20 saves en route to his second shutout of the season as the Red Wings defeated the St. Louis Blues, 5-0, on Wednesday.

Defenseman Brian Rafalski scored a goal and set up two others and Pavel Datsyuk added three assists for Detroit, which had not won at the Scottrade Center since December 7, 2006.

"It was an important win for us obviously," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We thought last time we came in here we let them dictate as time went on. We just said tonight, 'I don't know why we do that, let's get out there and get after them.'"

Blue-liner Nicklas Lidstrom wasted little time showing the Red Wings he was worth his contract extension, notching his fourth goal of the season at 2:26 of the first period.

The 37-year-old captain received a pass from Datsyuk, broke into the zone and fired a slap shot past goaltender Manny Legace on the near side to give Detroit a 1-0 edge.

"It was nice to get the goal," Lidstrom said. "It's been a while since I've scored. I just tried to go short side on Manny and tried to find an opening and the puck went through him there."

Earlier in the day, the Red Wings agreed to terms with Lidstrom on a two-year contract that will keep the five-time Norris Trophy winner with the club through the 2009-2010 season.

"I wanted to stay here and they knew that too," Lidstrom said. "So for me it was a no-brainer to get a deal done now instead of waiting until the end of the season. One of the reasons that I've stayed here so long is the commitment from the ownership.

"They've been willing to go to the cap and spend to have a competitive team. We always have a competitive team and I want to be part of that."

It was all the offense that Osgood would need as the 13-year veteran continued his strong campaign behind the NHL's best defense.

Osgood, who entered the game with an NHL-best 1.83 goals-against average, is now an impressive 16-2-1 on the season. He turned aside six shots in each of the first two periods and eight more in the third to record his 45th career shutout.

"It was key for us to get the two early goals," Osgood said. "It really gave us a boost and enabled us to really grind the game out and play our solid game."

The 35-year-old netminder's only other shutout this season also came against the Blues as Osgood blocked just 12 shots in a 3-0 triumph on November 24.

Jiri Hudler doubled Detroit's lead at 7:27 of the opening session with his ninth tally on assists from Mikael Samuelsson and Rafalski.

The Red Wings grabbed a 4-0 advantage as Filppula scored a pair of goals in the second period.

His first came on a power play when he received a centering feed from Datsyuk and fired a quick shot past Legace at 5:31. Just over two minutes later, Filppula's one-timer off a pass from Hudler ended Legace's night at the 7:37 mark of the middle session.

"I'm getting good chances," Filppula said. "I'm really getting a lot of good bounces, that's for sure. Luckily and fortunately, I'm able to put those in."

"You always want to get going right after the break," Babcock said. "We've won on a pretty consistent basis. We've had some good runs and we hope to have a few more good runs."

Legace, who spent six seasons with Detroit from 1999-2007, stopped just 12 of the 16 shots he faced.

"I was the worst player on the ice," Legace said. "I was horrible. I didn't give my team a chance in the first period."

Even with Hannu Toivonen in the crease, the Red Wings continued their offensive onslaught as Rafalski fired a slap shot past the 23-year-old Finn at 9:11 of the third period on the power play.

"We didn't play tonight," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We give our opponents credit. They played hard, much harder than we did physically and work-ethic wise. We didn't give ourselves a chance tonight. We were lousy. Every loss is disappointing."

Toivonen finished with 10 saves.