Wings Set NHL Record with Win over Jackets

The Detroit Red Wings set a new NHL record Saturday night, earning a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets for their 29th road victory of the season. The win broke the former record of 28 road wins by the 1998-99 New Jersey Devils.

Unlike the first half of the home-and-home series with Columbus, which saw Detroit jump to an early lead, the Blue Jackets struck first in Saturday’s matchup.

After a bad clearing attempt by Detroit netminder Chris Osgood, Jan Hrdina got conrol of the puck and fired a shot from the top of the right circle. The puck trickled between Osgood’s pads and gave Columbus the lead just 3:03 into the game.

The Red Wings evened the game 9:03 later, when Brendan Shanahan scored on a rebound opportunity.

Another rebound chance with 2:41 remaining put Detroit in the lead, when Tomas Holmstrom picked up the puck after a Mikael Samuelsson shot and put it past goalie Pascal Leclaire.

On a two-on-one rush at 9:24 of the second, Manny Malhotra tied the game, firing a shot over Osgood’s glove.

Jason Williams scored his 20th goal of the season just 1:55 later to put the Red Wings back in front. A crossing pass from Steve Yzerman at the right wing boards got the puck to Williams in the slot. He faded back to the left circle and blasted a shot home.

After Osgood stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period, Chris Chelios added an empty-netter from the center red line with just four seconds remaining, sealing the victory.

Osgood finished the game with 27 saves on 29 shots. Leclaire made 26 saves on the same number of chances against.

Neither team scored on the power play, with Detroit having four chances and Columbus two.

The Red Wings will return to the ice on Tuesday when they host the Edmonton Oilers.

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Steve Yzerman’s assist on Jason Williams’ second period goal extended his point-scoring streak to eleven games… Henrik Zetterberg missed the game with an “upper body injury” suffered Friday night. He is expected to return on Tuesday.