2006-07 - Game 11

[Normy_P]

Red Wings 3, Blues 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) -The Detroit Red Wings were interested more in winning for the second straight night on the road than getting some payback against St. Louis after the Tigers lost to the Cardinals in the World Series.

Tomas Holmstrom scored two goals off setups from Pavel Datsyuk in the Red Wings' 3-2 victory on Saturday night.

"I guess it's good to restore some of our pride in Detroit, but I didn't see the baseball game," defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. "For our part, it was nice to come in here and get a win after beating Dallas last night."

The Red Wings were delayed getting to their downtown hotel late Friday night by the celebration following the Cardinals' Game 5 clinching victory. Goalie Chris Osgood said fans were nice to the team.

"We knew it was going to be chaos down here and it took us a little while to get to the hotel," Osgood said. "They greeted us when we came in. There were no bad feelings or anything."

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, fresh from a five-game World Series victory over the Tigers, dropped the ceremonial first puck. It failed to spur the Blues, who have lost eight of nine to the Red Wings the last two seasons.

"I don't know what it is but we've been struggling against them," defenseman Christian Backman said. "We've definitely got to find a way to beat them."

Bill Guerin scored his fourth goal on a deflection in the second period for the Blues, who played their first game in a week. Radek Dvorak's short-handed breakaway cut the gap to one with 3:26 to go.

St. Louis has trailed 2-0 in five of its first nine games, rallying to win three of them. Against the Red Wings, it was too much of a deficit.

"We started the game like we had a week off," coach Mike Kitchen said. "We were rusty. A whole week off is not really in your favor."

Red Wings backup goalie Chris Osgood, formerly with the Blues, outplayed Manny Legace, who joined St. Louis as a free agent in the offseason. Osgood got a pair of friendly bounces midway through the third period when Dennis Wideman's wrist shot deflected off both goal posts with Detroit leading 3-1.

The goal light went on but replays indicated the puck did not cross the line. Legace said Osgood was helped by four or five bounces off the post.

Holmstrom scored on the Red Wings' first shot at 4:33 of the first, scoring the 300th point of his career. His second goal came on a second-chance deflection at 6:34 of the third.

Legace stopped the initial attempt but Holmstrom batted in the puck for his third goal of the season.

"I think I was too fired up," Legace said. "I didn't play the first 10 minutes very well, and let my team down. I wanted to come out and have a big game."

The Red Wings also converted their second shot of the game, with Valtteri Filppula split defenders and flipped in a backhander at 6:32 of the first for a 2-0 lead.

Notes: D Christian Backman, playing his first game of the season after offseason shoulder surgery, assisted on Guerin's goal. "The shoulder was good and I wasn't afraid of going into those battle situations," Backman said. ... The Blues have been tied or trailed by one goal in the third period of all nine of their games. ... Datsyuk has two goals and four assists in his last four games. ... This was the first of eight games between the teams.

Three star selections:
1st:   TOMAS HOLMSTROM
2nd:   DENNIS WIDEMAN
3rd:   PAVEL DATSYUK

Winning Goaltender:
CHRIS OSGOOD 

Losing Goaltender:
MANNY LEGACE