Red Wings Blank Mighty Ducks as Swedes Return

The Detroit Red Wings’ lineup was bolstered by the return of their five Swedish Olympians Wednesday night and their impact was immediately felt, as the Swedes scored the game’s only goals en route to a 2-0 Detroit win over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Goaltender Chris Osgood, making his first appearance since January 30, made 24 saves in the shutout effort. It was his second shutout of the season.

All of the game’s scoring came in the first period, when Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg beat Anaheim netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

At 7:28 of the period, Holmstrom scored just after coming out of the penalty box.

Pavel Datsyuk carried the puck into the Anaheim zone before sending a pass in to Zetterberg, who tapped it along to Holmstrom who was cutting through the crease. Holmstrom lifted a backhander over Giguere’s glove to put Detroit on the board.

Just 46 seconds later, Zetterberg extended his team’s lead.

When Anaheim’s Vitali Vishnevski was called for tripping in his own zone, Zetterberg won the ensuing faceoff over to Datsyuk, who cleared the puck back to Nicklas Lidstrom at the blue line. Lidstrom fired a shot on goal as Holmstrom went to the front of the net to screen, and the puck ended up deflecting off the inside of Holmstrom’s leg. The puck came to the side of the net where Zetterberg was wide open to tap it into the net.

Giguere shut the Wings down for the rest of the night, making 31 saves on 33 shots against, but the damage was already done.

The Zetterberg goal was Detroit’s lone power play tally in eight attempts, while five power plays were not enough for the Ducks to get onto the board.

The Red Wings will continue their road trip on Saturday when they visit the Phoenix Coyotes in the first game of a home-and-home series.

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The only point in the game not scored by a Swede was Russian Pavel Datsyuk’s assist on Tomas Holmstrom’s goal.