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Healthy Bertuzzi, Red Wings look to rev up offense

Mar 24, 2007 - 2:21 PM St Louis (30-31-12) at Detroit (45-19-10) 2:00 pm EDT

DETROIT (Ticker) - The Detroit Red Wings' offense is failing them at the wrong time. A healthy Todd Bertuzzi may help.

Battling for the top spot in the Western Conference, Bertuzzi and the Red Wings will look to rev up the scoring when they face the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

Detroit has been outscored, 8-3, during its three-game skid. The Red Wings' points leader, Pavel Datsyuk, tallied the lone goal in each of those contests but the rest of Detroit's offense has been stuck in neutral.

As a result, the Red Wings are one point behind Nashville (47-21-7) for first place in the Central Division and the top spot in the Western Conference. But it is nothing new for Detroit, which has scored just three goals in three consecutive defeats three times this season.

However, the Red Wings have gotten some help recently. Acquired from Florida at the trade deadline on February 27, Bertuzzi was activated from injured reserve before Thursday's game and played on a line with Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom.

Appearing in just his eighth game of the season due to back surgery, the power forward did not record a shot on goal and received an interference penalty in nearly 16 1/2 minutes of ice time.

The Blues lost for the fifth time in their last six games in a 5-1 loss to Minnesota on Thursday. Doug Weight tallied the first goal of the game but the Wild scored five straight goals to secure the victory.

St. Louis is 1-4-2 against Detroit this campaign.