Wings Make it Two in a Row

Manny Legace made 30 saves for his first shutout of the season, Steve Thomas had two goals and an assist, and Kris Draper scored his 10th goal of the season to help the Red Wings gain a 6-0 win over the New York Islanders.

Pavel Datsyuk set up Thomas’s first goal of the evening. Jiri Fischer dumped the puck into the Islander’s zone. Datsyuk picked it up as it bounced off the end boards and centered it to Thomas. Islanders goalie Garth Snow was completely focused on Datsyuk, and Thomas was able to flip the puck into a nearly empty net.

Thomas scored his second late in the period by taking advantage of a turnover by the Islanders. He intercepted a clearing pass by Oleg Kvasha and zinged a quick shot past Snow.

Brendan Shanahan scored a power play goal early in the second period with Janne Niinimaa in the box for high-sticking. Steve Yzerman got the puck out from the left boards to Kris Draper, and Draper made a careful pass across the goal crease to Shanahan, who flipped it into the net.

Datsyuk added a goal a few minutes later. Thomas took a shot which Snow stopped. Chris Chelios kicked at it in the goal crease, and Datsyuk scooped up the puck and put it high into the net.

The Islanders tried applying sporadic offensive pressure early in the third, getting their best two scoring chances of the game. Legace had to be sharp to stop Jason Blake’s shot from right in front of the net and Marius Czerkawski’s attempt from the left side a few minutes later.

Draper’s goal came midway through the third, when he took a pass from Kirk Maltby, got into the New York zone all alone and slid the puck beneath Snow. Brett Hull finished off the game by scoring from Datsyuk with just 2:11 left to play.

New York outshot Detroit by a count of 30 to 27. The Red Wings’ next game will be tomorrow night when they face the Blues in St. Louis.

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This was Thomas’s 1200th career game… Shanahan’s goal was the 541st of his career, tying him with Stan Mikita for 20th on the all-time goal scorers list… Tomas Holmstrom could be out for up to a month with a separated shoulder. Nathan Robinson came up from the Grand Rapids Griffins to fill the hole in the lineup.