Red Wings’ Legace Blanks Avalanche

On his 33rd birthday, Detroit Red Wings goaltender Manny Legace gave his team the gift of a shutout of the Colorado Avalanche.

The Red Wings picked up a 3-0 win over the Avalanche as Legace stopped all 28 shots he faced, including a breakaway chance by Brett McLean with Colorado on a power play midway through the third period.

All of the game’s scoring came in that final period and began with a goal by Dan Cleary at 5:40.

After the Wings killed a Nicklas Lidstrom penalty, Johan Franzen sent a long outlet pass to a tired Henrik Zetterberg. Zetterberg gained the Colorado zone but couldn’t get a shot off before Alex Tanguay dove to knock the puck into the corner. Zetterberg got there first and sent a quick pass to a streaking Cleary in the slot, where he one-timed a shot on net that trickled through the pads of Avalanche goalie David Aebischer.

Tomas Holmstrom set up Detroit’s next goal with 9:59 remaining in the game.

Just inside the Colorado blue line, Holmstrom stripped Rob Blake of the puck and passed it off to countryman Mikael Samuelsson. Samuelsson stepped into the slot and wristed a shot through a screen and past Aebischer to put the Wings up by two.

Rober Lang finished the game’s scoring with 1:31 left in the third, taking an outlet pass from Jason Williams and breaking in all alone on Aebischer, waiting for him to sprawl across the goal mouth before lifting a shot over him.

Aebsicher finished the game with 29 saves on 32 shots.

Neither team scored on the power play, with Detroit having three chances and Colorado seven.

The Detroit is now 3-0 against Colorado this season, with the teams’ fourth matchup coming at Joe Louis Arena on February 12. The Red Wings next action will be on Wednesday when they host the Nashville Predators in the first game of a home-and-home series.