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Red Wings rally for fifth consecutive victory

Nov 3, 2006 - 3:59 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- With the Detroit Red Wings' winning streak in jeopardy, Henrik Zetterberg and Robert Lang saved the day in the third period.

Zetterberg and Lang scored in a 3:10 span and Chris Osgood made 21 saves as the Red Wings won their fifth straight game, a 2-1 triumph over the Chicago Blackhawks.

In posting its fifth consecutive one-goal victory, Detroit recorded its ninth win in 10 meetings against "Original Six" rival Chicago, which suffered its seventh straight defeat.

Trailing 1-0, Detroit tied the score at 3:09 of the third period when Zetterberg set up Tomas Holmstrom, who was stopped on four shots from the doorstep by netminder Brian Boucher before Zetterberg fired the rebound inside the left goalpost.

"I would be lying if I said it doesn't feel good to score again," said Zetterberg, who netted his first tally since October 11. "It has been a while and it has been tough. It's nice to get one to go in. I didn't want to miss that one it was an open net."

"Holmstrom did a great job of staying at the net and drawing the crowd," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Henrik was then able to put the puck in the net. It seemed like we hit so many posts tonight, I just kept hearing, 'ding.' Eventually, those have to go in for this team."

Lang gave Detroit a 2-1 lead at 6:19 of the final session with a wrister of blue-liner Brett Lebda's drop pass from the left faceoff circle that deflected off Chicago defenseman Adrian Aucoin and beat Boucher to the glove side.

"Lang made a good shot to get us the win," Osgood said. "We are starting to play better. We have been in a lot of games like tonight, so we are starting to get used to them."

Osgood, who needed to make just one save in the second period, won for the third time in four decisions and recorded his 328th career victory. He is one win shy of teammate Dominik Hasek for fourth place among active netminders.

"Chicago came at us hard," Osgood said. "They are just playing without too many of their top players right now. You can't lose all the guys they have and keep winning."

Rene Bourque opened the scoring for the Blackhawks with 6:16 left in the first period with his fourth goal of the season, easily converting Radim Vrbata's centering feed from the right circle.

"It was big to get the first goal and get out of the first period with the lead," Bourque said. "Then in the second period, we took a lot of penalties. Then they started to play better."

Winless in seven starts this season, Boucher made 27 saves for Chicago, which has scored just three times in its last five contests.

"We will try and find a silver lining somewhere out there," Boucher said. "It is not the end of the world even though the fans probably think so. What we need is a few breaks and a seven-game winning streak.

"Bottom line is, though, I have not gotten any wins and I am aware of that. But I am a responsible person and you have to look in a mirror and be accountable."