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Osgood, Red Wings blank lowly Kings

Jan 23, 2008 - 7:03 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- It appears that a trip to Los Angeles was all that All-Star Chris Osgood needed to get out of his current funk.

The 35-year-old netminder made 27 saves en route to his third shutout of the season and Mikael Samuelsson had a goal and assist as the Detroit Red Wings cruised to their third consecutive victory with a 3-0 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen also tallied for the Red Wings, who have beaten the Kings in all three meetings this season by a combined score of 13-3.

"Hopefully we learned that we can play with those teams if we are all on," Los Angeles coach Marc Crawford said. "I thought we were all on for the first period and maybe a little bit for the rest of the game, but you need to be on for the entire game against these guys. They just won't allow you to win unless you get a great game from your team."

Osgood, who has allowed just one goal in two starts against Los Angeles this season, turned aside 12 shots in the first period, six more in the next and nine in the third to record his 36th career blanking.

"I really don't have an explanation for our record against the Kings over the years," Osgood said. "The games here always seem to be pretty close and they're never easy games. They have a lot of talent and should be playing for a playoff spot."

It was Osgood's first shutout since December 26 against the St. Louis Blues.

The 13-year veteran was coming off a pair of bad outings after being selected as a Western Conference reserve. He surrendered five goals before losing in a shootout to Minnesota Wild on January 10 and yielded four tallies in 27 minutes in a setback to the Atlanta Thrashers last Tuesday.

"It was a good game for me coming back off the Atlanta game," Osgood said. "They were in the game early and that got me into it as well. Samuelsson's goal really gave us a boost because the game was really tight up until then."

Osgood did not struggle in this one as Holmstrom provided all the offense he would need at the 6:57 mark of the opening session. Holmstrom blasted a one-timer past goaltender Jason LaBarbera off a pass from All-Star Pavel Datsyuk.

Samuelsson doubled the advantage with 5:13 left in the second with his eighth tally of the season. He then set up Franzen's tally at 2:55 of the final session, which provided the final margin.

"He's one of those players who you almost have to beg to shoot," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said of Samuelsson. "I get on him all the time about shooting the puck; he's just one of those 'pass first' type of players."

"Coach Babcock is always telling me to shoot more," Samuelsson said. "I picked up the puck at center ice, and once I cleared the blue line, just let it go. I was glad when it got by (LaBarbera)."

LaBarbera stopped 24 shots for Los Angeles, which has lost 17 of its last 18 contests against Detroit.

"They are the best team in the league for a reason," LaBarbera said. "They probably didn't have one of their better games, but they found a way to win. That's the reason why they're in first place and we're not."