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Osgood, Red Wings blank Blues; Hossa leaves on stretcher

Mar 4, 2009 - 6:25 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- With their leading scorer in the hospital, the Detroit Red Wings may not celebrate this win for too long.

Chris Osgood made 22 saves to record his first shutout of the season as the Red Wings cruised to a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday after Marian Hossa left the game on a stretcher early in the first period.

Hossa, who leads the club with 34 goals this campaign, was taken off the ice on a stretcher at 5:24 after a collision with Blues defenseman Roman Polak sent the four-time All-Star sliding into the boards head first.

"He just kind of turned and hit the boards with his head," said Polak, who received a two-minute roughing penalty on the play. "I don't want to injure the guy. I just want to play hard. I saw it and I didn't feel good after that."

The 30-year-old Hossa, who had missed the previous two contests with a neck injury, remained on the ice for several minutes with many of his teammates gathered around him.

Hossa did manage to wave to the crowd as he was leaving the ice. He was taken to the hospital immediately, although he never lost consciousness.

The injury, however, does not appear to be serious. Hossa will travel with the team for Wednesday's game against the Colorado Avalanche, but he is not likely to play.

"I don't think he's playing tomorrow, but he's flying with us," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "They're doing a bunch of tests on him and everything looks real good."

"You're a little concerned, a little worried, but then we got an update that he was OK," Detroit right wing Daniel Cleary said. "The one thing we talked about was let's take it to them, let's get this thing out of hand."

Tomas Kopecky netted a shorthanded goal and added two assists for the Red Wings, who bounced back from an 8-0 thrashing by the Nashville Predators on Saturday.

Henrik Zetterberg, Kris Draper, defenseman Niklas Kronwall and Valtteri Filppula also scored and All-Star Pavel Datsyuk and Jiri Hudler collected two assists apiece for Detroit, which has won 11 of its last 15 contests.

Osgood turned aside seven shots in the opening session, nine more in the next and six in the third to complete his 48th career blanking. It was the first shutout by a Red Wings goaltender this season.

"When I'm playing my best, I'm playing under control," Osgood said. "I know when I'm playing good and when I'm not. I'm getting where I need to be and I'm not scrambling around, flopping, overcommitting. So I'm going in the right direction. Hopefully, were headed in the right direction, too."

Chris Mason stopped 31 shots for the Blues, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

Mason, who had allowed just one goal in each of his previous five starts, thought the 10-minute delay from Hossa's injury had a negative effect on the team.

"Something wasn't the same after it as before," Mason said. "It seemed to take the fire out of what we had. I don't know if it was the wait, the situation, or what, but we definitely didnt come out the same, or play the same, after that."