Goaltender Chris Osgood earned his second consecutive shutout as the Detroit Red Wings rolled to a 3-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday night, giving them a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Osgood stopped 22 shots in the effort and became the second goalie in NHL history to start his Finals career with six consecutive wins.
The Red Wings got on the board just 6:55 into the game when Brad Stuart rifled a shot off of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and into the net.
Valtteri Filppula gained the Pittsburgh zone on the left side and slid a pass across to a trailing Stuart while going to the net. Stuart waited for Filppula’s screen before blasting a shot on net. Fleury got a piece of it but not enough as it deflected up and in.
Tomas Holmstrom stretched the lead to two 4:23 later, finishing off a chance by Henrik Zetterberg.
Holmstrom sent the puck from behind the net to Zetterberg in the slot to bang between Fleury’s pads. It slowly slipped through and Holmstrom reached in behind Fleury to push the puck across the goal line.
A highlight reel goal by Valtteri Filppula finished off the game’s scoring at 8:48 of the third.
With the teams skating four aside, Filppula was sprung on a rush into the Pittsburgh zone with a pass by Johan Franzen. He raced around defenseman Kris Letang and cut back in front of Fleury while being hooked. On one leg, he put a shot past Fleury before flying through the air.
The game ended with the Penguins trying to assert themselves physically, as Petr Sykora bumped Osgood, leading to a scrum that saw Pavel Datsyuk drop Gary Roberts. After time ran out, Maxime Talbot approached the celebrating Red Wings but was led away by the officials.
The Red Wings will look to take a stranglehold on the series in Game Three from Pittsburgh on Wednesday, a virtual must-win for the Penguins.
Franzen returned to the lineup after missing six games with concussion-like symptoms. Darren McCarty was scratched to clear room for him.
