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Red Wings go for fifth straight win, take on Blues

Dec 31, 2007 - 11:46 AM St Louis (18-14-4) at Detroit (29-7-3) 7:00 pm EST

DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Detroit Red Wings will go for their fifth win in a row when they host the Central Division-rival St. Louis Blues on Monday.

While Detroit has maintained its position as the class of the NHL, it was not until the month of December that Valtteri Filppula began to assert himself as an offensive threat. The 23-year-old native of Finland owns nine tallies this month, tops on team.

With top scorers Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom each sitting out the past week due to injury, Filppula has helped ensure that the top-scoring team in the league has not shown any signs of weakness. The Red Wings have outscored their opponents 17-5 during their recent four-game spurt.

The Blues have been on the opposite end of the spectrum lately, dropping their last four games, including a 5-0 loss to Detroit on Wednesday. Filppula scored twice in the contest and Chris Osgood made 20 saves for the shutout.

However, the Red Wings' last loss came at St. Louis, 3-2, on December 20, and six of their seven losses and two of their three overtime losses have come against divisional opponents.

Holmstrom and Zetterberg, who are both listed as day-to-day, could be back for the showdown with St. Louis. Zetterberg, who ranks seventh in the NHL in points, owns 31 points in 27 career games against the Blues.