Wings End Skid with Win over Blues

The Detroit Red Wings ended their brief two-game losing streak on Sunday with a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. The loss gave St. Louis a franchise-record eighth-straight loss.

Detroit bounced back from a sloppy 4-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes with strong play early and the first goal of the game just past the midway point of the first period.

With 9:53 left in the opening frame, Brendan Shanahan scored to put the Red Wings on the board. Jason Williams sent a cross-ice pass from the left circle that Robert Lang wisely let continue through the slot on to Shanahan on the right side. Shanahan’s first shot was stopped by St. Louis goalie Patrick Lalime but he put in his own rebound.

Detroit struck again early in the second period, with Tomas Holmstrom continuing his scoring streak. Just 1:06 in, Pavel Datsyuk made a strong backchecking play to steal the puck at the Detroit blue line before banking it off the glass and up to Holmstrom on a two-on-one. Holmstrom stepped into the right circle and put a snap-shot over Lalime’s blocker to give Detroit a two-goal lead.

The Blues pulled within a goal just 2:58 later with Lang in the penalty box for hooking. Former Red Wing Mike Sillinger fired a shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off the leg of Detroit defender Chris Chelios and past netminder Chris Osgood to get the home team on the board.

Holmstrom’s second of the night at 8:35 put Detroit back up by two.

With the Wings on the power play, a Nicklas Lidstrom shot from the blue line was knocked down in the slot by Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg sent the puck on net and Holmstrom picked up the rebound at the side of the goal, putting it in for his fifth goal in three games.

The Red Wings closed the game’s scoring at 1:31 of the third, when Zetterberg was left all alone in front of the St. Louis goal to take a pass from Pavel Datsyuk and fake out Lalime. Holmstrom picked up his third point of the night on the play, tapping the puck to Datsyuk along the right-wing boards before Datsyuk centered it to Zetterberg.

After being held without a point on Saturday, the Wings’ power play went one-for-five on Sunday. St. Louis was held to one goal on eight power play chances.

Osgood continued his strong play, stopping 26 of 27 St. Louis shots, while Lalime made 21 saves on 25 shots against.

Detroit will be back in action at home on Wednesday as the Red Wings host the Los Angeles Kings.